Last week I made my usual pilgrimage to the place where all the evangelical seminary geeks converge: the Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society. This year was the second time Atlanta has hosted since I began attending, and it was fun reliving early autumn just before the snow arrived back home. Over the years I developed a strategy: make plans to attend nonstop papers, then throw out those plans when relational opportunities arise. This year the program was a bit light, but thankfully the people made up for what was lacking. When reflecting on the meeting I was reminded of just how good last year’s meeting had been. This…

A couple months ago I saw a blog post going around titled “I Don’t Have My S*** Together.” It’s by a self-professed Christian author who is seriously troubled by the thought of pretending to be good. My response was—and is—visceral, but I was hoping some distance would give me clarity. I’ve seen this line of thought before. I’ve even wandered a little ways down that path myself. It usually comes of rethinking a legalistic background. You work so hard to be good, to appear perfect, and everyone else around you pretends to be perfect when you know they’re not. Then you discover grace. Or maybe you discover it anew. And you…

It’s too early to be blogging about Advent. I know what you’re thinking. Well, ok, I know what you might be thinking. Either a: “what is Advent?” or b: “too early? It’s half over already!” This is my first time giving Advent a try, so I’m kind of fumbling my way through here. I had no plans to observe it coming into the season, but some friends from church invited me to join them for a study and I said yes. I think most of us in the group have never done this before; it’s not a very Baptist thing to do. Advent is the time Christians long ago set aside…

Happy December! I have a long overdue ETS 2014 recap for you. This year the annual meeting was held in San Diego—and by coincidence my wife Jenny decided this was the year she should tag along and see what all the fuss is about. The weather was gorgeous, and I never really got why people are so crazy about palm trees until now. I’m ready to call SoCal home. My habit at annual meetings is to have everything scheduled out, then chuck the schedule when opportunities for personal meetings arise. This year I was a little more careful to try to get more from the presentations since this was an…

I’m not a sci-fi fanboy by any stretch, but I love a good story and I don’t hesitate to admit that includes lots of science fiction. Right now my wife and I are almost done with Stargate SG-1, which has lots of religious themes tied in. At this point in the story, the enemy is an advanced race of people claiming to be gods and demanding worship. They have great demonstrations of power, a book of origins, promises of blessings for believers and destruction for unbelievers. Hits a little close to home sometimes. Why do we worship God? Is it because we don’t want to get smoted? Is it because of His…