CCBlogs thinking critically, living faithfully

Adam Copeland's blog

The tricky truth about children’s sermons is that it’s easier to come up with bad ones than good ones.

Yesterday, a Sunday morning Twitter exchange with a few pastors got me thinking about my children’s sermon approach, and how it differs from many of my colleagues. For example, when I saw this site and the idea of teaching about the bentover woman in Luke 13 with a bent spoon, I laughed out lout and closed my browser tab immediately. Later, when I had time to reflect, I found some redeeming qualities to the suggestion, but the bent spoon as an object lesson still puts me off (as if osteoporosis is anything like a bad ice cream scoop — that’s insulting both to our adults with bad backs and to our children’s intelligence!). So, here’s a few of my children’s sermons DOs and Don’ts:... READ MORE.

Carol Howard Merritt's blog

A commissioner to the General Assembly (our denomination’s national meeting that happens every two years), came back to report on what he did. He was a bit disappointed that he was on the church growth committee. The first day they sat down and talked about how if the church continues to decline at the same rate, then there will be no members left in forty years. The second day, they studied Matthew 25. The third day, they studied Matthew 25. They went on a couple of field trips, and they studied Matthew 25 some more.

The people hearing the report were shocked. That was it?... READ MORE.

Debra Dean Murphy's blog

The first time I taught an introductory world religions class, one of the students was a quiet Afghan named Mohammed. When it came time for oral presentations, Mohammed talked about Jesus. As a devout Muslim, he knew a lot about his subject.

This was a few years before 9/11 — before ”Islamic extremism” and “jihad” entered the cultural lexicon; before conservative media began regularly exploiting their audiences’ ignorance of orthodox Islam; before suspicion of all things Muslim became the order of the day in America.... READ MORE.

Steve Pankey's blog

I'm not sure why I've missed this list for the last 14 years, but in my newsfeed this morning came the Beloit College Mindset List. It is the compilation of two senior faculty members at Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin and it attempts to help professors see the generation gap between them and the incoming freshman class.

Some of the notes on the list are funny. Some make me feel old. Some, however are quite helpful for we in the Church as we continue to evaluate where we are in relation to new and powerful generations.... READ MORE.

There are a number of new bloggers in the network. Drop by and check them out:

Nancy Janish, a former veterinarian, blogs about science and religion, among other things. So does Thomas Jay Oord, a Church of the Nazarene theologian.

Steven Demmler writes about theology while studying it as a graduate student. Kurt Willems blogs as a Mennonite Brethren pastor and a seminarian. Joshua Pedersen writes about the Bible from the perspective of a literature Ph.D.

Married couple Daniel Ott (a theologian) and Teri McDowell Ott (a pastor) blog in conversation with each other. Teacher and consultant Margaret Marcuson blogs about church leadership.

Phil Heinze writes a devotion for each of the Revised Common Lectionary’s daily readings.

David Warkentin, a pastor in British Columbia, blogs on community and culture. Massachusetts Methodist pastor John Nash offers “random thoughts on life, religion and sports.”

James Sledge, a former corporate pilot, is a Presbyterian pastor in suburban Columbus. Massachusetts Episcopal priest Rich Simpson teaches Bible to undergraduates.

Alan Rudnick is a Baptist pastor in upstate New York. Robert McDowell is a Methodist pastor in western Ohio. Danny Bradfield blogs at Field of Dandelions.

Gawain de Leeuw is an Episcopal priest in White Plains, NY. His “heresy of choice is semi-Pelagianism.” Jon Fogle is “attentive to the scripture, a theological moderate, and a social liberal (just like Jesus).”

Joey Aszterbaum blogs as the Charismanglican, which means exactly what it looks like.

Melissa Florer-Bixler's blog

Yesterday I wrote a short review of Lise Eliot’s Pink Brain, Blue Brain, a book about the science of gender difference. One of the most powerful chapters in the book is Love and War. It begins with studies of the emotional assessment difference between men and women. Her conclusion is that emotional response, an area in which women are dominate, is not innate. In several studies men’s emotional response was actually found to be more acute than women’s, although women outpace men on the ability to name and recognize the feelings of others (empathy). While hormones make a small impact on this development, emotional response is almost entirely a learned behavior. Aggression has equally dubious ties to biological factors and instead Eliot chalks these up to evolutionary survival techniques. While prenatal testosterone primes boys for a life of physical contests, there is no cause-and-effect relationship. There are many factors at play, primarily socialization.

Eliot also points out that aggression as competition is not limited to men. We’ve all experienced or seen the Mean Girls syndrome of girls outdoing one another through hidden tactics of intimidation. The difference is that women are socialized to express aggression in covert ways; physical aggression is taboo.... READ MORE.

Marvin Lindsay's blog

[August 6 was] the 65th anniversary of the atomic bomb blast over Hiroshima. We should make mention of this event and its legacy.

To be sure, if it weren't for the bomb I might not be here today to make note of its dropping. My dad was on an amphibious ship in the Philippines rehearsing invasion maneuvers when the war ended. The bomb excused him from having to face kamikaze attacks and murderous onshore shelling. He was happy to go home, for any reason.

But that's too nearsighted a view to assess Hiroshima.... READ MORE.

Marvin Lindsay's blog

My next contribution to the peace, unity and purity of the church will be to teach a course on early Christian sexuality. If we're condemned to fight over sex ad infinitum, I want both liberals and conservatives to know that neither has history on its side.

Imagine a time when substantial numbers of Christians regarded procreation as a great evil. Imagine a time when the counter-cultural "left" practiced sexual renunciation. It's not some science fiction future. We've been there and done that.... READ MORE.