My wife and I were called into the mission field in 2010, where we spent the next decade working with the underground Church. What we experienced there forever changed us in ways that we really didn't understand. We didn't really have to wrestle with the realities of these changes until well after we returned home. …
The Authority of Scripture
Authority matters. The question of "authority" has divided the Church, "east against west", "Catholic against Orthodox", and "Protestant against Catholic/Orthodox traditions". So unity will always suffer so long as the question of authority remains ambiguous and unclear. I believe the Protestant reformation re-introduced one central truth that was desperately needed within the Church. And that …
Does the Bible “Speak Plainly”?
This has been a reoccurring conversation I've had with many people over the years. The problem with this idea, when used wrongly, is that it conflates the text itself with our reading of the text, and then treats any challenge as a challenge to Scripture itself. When used this way, the phrase essentially becomes a …
Spiritual Harlotry
We have to pause and think about what's happening right now. I realize that some people are so numb and weary that they're simply ignoring what's happening, while others are outraged and being consumed by rage. And I realize that there are those who are still making excuses for the President's conduct for political purposes, …
ICE, the State, and the Confused Christian Conscience
I think very few institutions right now expose our political and moral confusion quite like "Immigration and Customs Enforcement". Most Americans look at overwhelmed systems, human trafficking, drug smuggling, and security threats and conclude that some form of border enforcement is necessary. And many Americans are troubled by what they fear is the political interest …
Continue reading "ICE, the State, and the Confused Christian Conscience"
Can Politics Disqualify Christian Faith? A Threefold Test
Can a Christian's political stances ever disqualify their Christian profession? In this post we're going to apply a threefold test to help determine if something is "Christian" or not.
Our Foundation
With so much confusion and chaos in the world, people need solid ground to stand upon. Jesus said his word was like a rock upon which we could build our life. But we need to understand what that means. Let's think about that!
Who is “the Church”?
This post responds to Dr. Joshua Sijuwade’s The Identity of the Church: A Comprehensive Argument for the Truth of Eastern Orthodoxy, which claims that the Eastern Orthodox Church best fulfills the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed’s vision of the “one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.” While appreciating the intellectual rigor of Sijuwade’s argument, the author challenges the underlying assumption that the one Church must correspond to a single, historically continuous institution. Drawing from Ephesians 4 and the teachings of Jesus, the post argues that the Church’s unity is spiritual, not institutional—rooted in the shared life of believers who abide in Christ and are joined together by the Spirit. The true continuity of the Church is the ongoing work of the Spirit among all who follow Jesus, not an unbroken chain of organizational lineage. Historic and structural continuity have value but do not define the Church’s identity; faithfulness to Christ does. The Church, therefore, is not a denomination we can point to, but a people who together embody the love, faith, and hope of the gospel.
Loyalties Neglected: Words of Jesus We Still Don’t Hear
Jesus didn’t say you shouldn't serve God and money. He said you can't. Yet, many churches attempt to balance allegiance to both — redefining faithfulness in economic terms. In doing so, we sound far more like the Pharisees than Jesus.
Mercy Neglected: The Words of Jesus That We Still Don’t Hear
Many Christians admire boldness more than mercy. But Jesus says the merciful—not just the correct—are the blessed ones. In an age of outrage and theological pride, mercy isn’t optional. It’s the mark of those who’ve received God’s heart. We must return to Jesus’ vision: truth expressed through compassion and grace.
