Wandering and Lamaze (Preface and Chapter 1 of The Dusty Ones: Why Wandering Deepens Your Faith)

Excerpt: This book is about wandering. It wouldn’t be fair to say I make my final approach to the topic of wandering out of nowhere or free of baggage. I’ve checked some heavy bags for the flight. Indeed, I bring myself with a cargo load of luggage from my own story that’s sure to affect the way I reflect upon it. For one, I approach the topic of wandering as a preacher. Preaching is my trade, my vocation, and my life’s passion. Preaching is also my paycheck—it puts food on my family’s table. But my preaching isn’t entirely driven by economic forces alone. I preach because I am a Christian. And as a Christian who has done a considerable amount of wandering, I can’t shut up about the topic. Standing there week after week in front of the people of God with an open Bible, I’ve come to observe that every follower of Jesus does a good deal of wandering from Sunday to Sunday

Book review of Eric Patterson and Edmund J. Rybarczyk, ed., The Future of Pentecostalism in the United States

Patterson and Rybarczyk build this text on two prodding questions: Is there a future to American Pentecostalism? What will it look like? The editors employ a wide-ranging group of scholars in pursuit of these two questions

Eco-Glossolalia: Emerging Twenty-First Century Pentecostal and Charismatic Ecotheology

This study sets out first to chart developments in an emerging and growing body of research in the field of Pentecostal and Charismatic Ecotheology. This literature is grouped within three main trajectories characterized as Pentecostal and Charismatic Social Justice Theology, Pentecostal and Charismatic Spirit/ Creation Theology, and distinctively Pentecostal and Charismatic Ecotheology. Second, this study experiments with a possible pneumatological metaphor that can remedy the growing need for Pentecostal scholarship in the area of ecotheology: the Spirit baptized creation

An Expression of Faith that Fits (Chapter 8 of Starting Missional Churches)

With a wealth of dynamic information regarding the people of his city, Pastor AJ Swoboda, of the Foursquare Church tradition, writes a compelling chapter on planting a church in the unique place of Portland, Oregon. Beginning in their living room, AJ\u27s family pursued God\u27s initiatives by meeting people in a local coffee shop. In three years they have missionally joined God in creating an expression of faith that fits the unique people of Portland. If you are interested in bivocational ministry or how your academic background can equip you for church planting, please continue to read

Posterity or Prosperity? Critiquing and Refiguring Prosperity Theologies in an Ecological Age

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, prosperity theologies have simultaneously received a warm reception by some and a critical cold shoulder by others. With emotive responses provoked on both sides, what cannot be ignored is the influence prosperity thinking has, and will have, on the global church. Yet, little to no attention has been devoted to the intersection between prosperity theology and the issues surrounding the ecological crisis, such as climate change, environmental degradation, human greed, and wanton consumerism. Does such an intersection exist? This article explores this question by contrasting prosperity theology’s divine economy and agrarianism’s great economy. In sum, it suggests that the uncritical reception of prosperity teachings— though they speak pointedly to real, felt human needs—can ultimately create ecologically harmful, if not anti-ecological, modes of thinking and living within its adherents

The Monsters at the End of This Book( Introduction and Chapter 1 of A Glorious Dark: Finding Hope in the Tension Between Belief and Experience)

Excerpt: When I was a kid, a free-flowing river meandered its way through my backyard. My family loved rivers. We always lived near one. Growing up in dark, drippy, soulful Oregon winters, I’d watch the death of January conquer, year after year, the once free-flowing and wild Willamette River. By mid-month, during the muffled silence of cold, a deep, bone-chilling freeze would halt every living thing upon the face of our backyard. The Willamette fell victim with the rest. The river looked dead—frozen dead. But the frozen river wasn’t really dead. My old man would tell me that underneath that cold, dark, seemingly dead surface was a wild, powerful, primal flow that untrained eyes couldn’t imagine. You had to believe it was alive. Rushing waves lurked underneath the stillness of death, as powerful as ever. Dad knew it was there, below the surface. I believed it was there too

Posterity or Prosperity? Critiquing and Refiguring Prosperity Theologies in an Ecological Age

At the beginning of the twenty-first century, prosperity theologies have simultaneously received a warm reception by some and a critical cold shoulder by others. With emotive responses provoked on both sides, what cannot be ignored is the influence prosperity thinking has, and will have, on the global church. Yet, little to no attention has been devoted to the intersection between prosperity theology and the issues surrounding the ecological crisis, such as climate change, environmental degradation, human greed, and wanton consumerism. Does such an intersection exist? This article explores this question by contrasting prosperity theology’s divine economy and agrarianism’s great economy. In sum, it suggests that the uncritical reception of prosperity teachings— though they speak pointedly to real, felt human needs—can ultimately create ecologically harmful, if not anti-ecological, modes of thinking and living within its adherents

Remember the Sabbath

Excerpt: Microwaves. Smart phones. Cars. Our culture has more time-saving devices, technological conveniences, and cheaper mobility than any point in history. We now live in a 24/7 world in which every good and service is available around the clock at the touch of a button. We have more information at our fingertips and more options at our disposal and yet we are ominously dissatisfied. The rhythms that mark the success-obsessed West have taken their toll on our minds, bodies, relationships, and environment