Posts Tagged ‘Trends’
Stop Trying to Be Cool
Over three decades serving as a pastor I have had opportunity to witness many trends and fads in church life. Terms like “seeker” and “emergent” and “missional” and “relevant” and “contemporary” have all at various times found their way into the evangelical lexicon. While these cover a wide range of issues and involve many different…
Read MoreThe Church after Covid – Where Is It Going?
A recent Christian Post article reports on a Barna study of church participation during the recent “lockdown” weeks of the Covid-19 crisis. The Christian Post article opens with this: One-third of all practicing Christians haven’t been watching either their own church online or another church’s streaming worship services since the state lockdowns in response to…
Read MoreEvaluating Incarnational Ministry (4) — Conclusion
Taigen Joos In the past few posts, I have sought to lay out a sketch of what incarnational ministry is and have given some amount of critical evaluation to it. Incarnationalism has a misunderstanding of its key Scriptural texts, often reading into the text, or emphasizing things in the text, without a clear understanding of…
Read MoreEvaluating Incarnational Ministry (3)
Taigen Joos To continue the discussion from the previous two posts, incarnational ministry brings with it some concerns. One of those concerns is a misunderstanding of key biblical texts. In this post, I offer two more critiques. Incarnational Ministry Overemphasizes the Humanity of Jesus In reading the various literature regarding this topic, the emphasis on…
Read MoreEvaluating Incarnational Ministry (2)
Taigen Joos Last time, I quickly gave a description of what those who teach an incarnational approach to ministry mean by that terminology. To quote Ben Edwards, who summarizes this position well when he critiques it, saying that the incarnationalist believes that Christians are sent into the world to “imitate Christ by serving the world…
Read MoreEvaluating Incarnational Ministry (1)
Taigen Joos In recent years, a new trend within broader evangelicalism has emerged. The notion of “incarnational ministry” has garnered much attention and adherence throughout the evangelical world. What does it mean to have an incarnational ministry? Admittedly, it is somewhat difficult to do, due to the variety of authors and perspectives of it.
Read MoreThe Point of No Return
Tom Nieman Recently I have encountered a number of individuals who, after lamenting current conditions in our state and country (and the world), will suddenly swing to a default position with the claim that things are similar to the way things have always been. I do, however, encounter those who know of and even seem…
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