Issues in the Church - Gathering In Light (Page 2)

Accessorizing the Christian Life: What Would [Can] Jesus Sell?

Emily ran across an article in the LA Times about a new ‘Christian’ perfume called ‘Virtuous Woman.’ The article is entitled “What Would Jesus Sell?” The main gist of the column is about a new perfume that is hopefully “enticing enough to provoke questions: ‘What’s that you’re wearing?

Blog Entries

The Cross and a Statue

I wonder sometimes, whether I’ve gone off the deep end; I find myself criticizing stuff like this so often. There are so many things that get under my skin; I’m a very happy and fairly contented person, really I am. It’s just when I see things like

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Spending Money as Christians: A Quaker Perspective

Last night Emily and I had the opportunity to hang out with some of our good friends from Ohio and eat some fantastic sushi. During the course of the evening, we encroached on a sometimes-touchy subject (except for this night): How Christians spend their money. The conversation almost always turns

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Christendom is Not Over Yet

I was chatting with Shawn who just got back from his trip to St. Louis – on his way back he took a picture of an enormous Cross. The site of it made my stomach turn, domesticating the cross, and then making it the size of a large building strips the

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Theology on Blogs Continued: Constructive Snippets, Cohesive Thoughts

A couple days back I wrote a short entry on the fact that theology is always on the move, and must be adjusted to the times in order that it makes sense of larger more agreed upon truths within our local contexts. Because of this I think it would be

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Why Theology Should Be Written On Blogs and Wikis

I’ve begun reading more about Stanley Hauerwas in my attempts to find theologians who are influential and brilliant, yet challenge the status quo with their own lives and thinking. One thing I really appreciate about Hauerwas that he focuses on theology that is useful for communities of faith – he

Biking

I Think I Did A Mean Thing to Your H2

Okay so there isn’t much of a secret about how I feel about environmental issues, I think especially Christians should be concerned with how we care for creation. We have a responsibility to take care of what God left in our stewardship, this is why Emily and I do

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Emerging Church Resources: A Beginners Reference Guide

When people find out that I am one of Ryan Bolger’s understudies I get asked what I think of the emerging church and frequently what resources are good for people interested in finding out more about the Emerging church. In hopes of making a useful guide I’ve created

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World Hunger and Sustainable Eating

It’s important for me to point out a fellow Fuller PhD student, Russ Kirby, who has written a stellar argument for having a sustainable Diet. Russ, a practical theologian, says, If there is enough food to fully feed the world, then why are 840 million people still literally starving

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Left Behind Eternal Forces – Violence for Christians

Today in the Los Angeles Times, there is an article about a new Christian” video game: Left Behind: Eternal Forces. The game aims to make a broadly appealing video game, similar to Grand Theft Auto; it is a real-time” strategy game that features plenty of biblical smiting, albeit with high-tech

Blog Entries

A Plug for Fuller’s Newspaper – The Semi

Mike Work and I both got our start in the world of publishing today (he may have written before though I don't remember), both of us have articles on technology and the church. See Fuller's Newspaper for a Download of the article.

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Lecture Today and Intro to The Lord’s Prayer

Today is my first chance to lecture in a classroom setting. As I have been preparing over the last couple weeks, I have found that I will never get it the way I want it. I have been writing and rewriting parts of it for the last three days and

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Prosecutor calls foul on XFBA

A continuing saga on the XFBA. Today’s article at cantonrep.com story by Todd Porter Warrants were issued Tuesday for the arrest of Michael Willis Heard and Gregory Railey Jr. after City Prosecutor Frank Forchione charged each with four counts of theft by deception.

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Today’s Article on the XFBA

cantonrep.com When marketing staffers asked Heard where the tickets were, they said none existed. They were, in essence, selling tickets to games that never were scheduled because no arenas has been secured. I got fired for asking where were the tickets,??? former marketing staffer Sheneva Williams said. I don

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XFBA Flyer – Have You Seen This?

Take a look at this. Its really what it looks like. And the XFBA make WKYC Television here is the link. Technorati Tags: church_issues, church_scam, xfba, xzuberant

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How a Small Blog Made a Big Difference

The Canton Repository’s Todd Porter has published two new articles on the Xzuberant Faith Basketball scam that happened in northeastern Ohio. For other stories from the Canton Rep and the work I’ve done on the situation visit my XFBA resource page. 1. Father of XFBA administrator reaches out

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Xzuberant faith makes Canton Repository

**Looking for the XFBA Archive Page, it’s been moved. Look here. Todd Porter sports writer for the Canton Repository wrote two articles concerning the Xzuberant Faith Basketball Association today. Article One Article Two You will most likely have to register for an account, but its not too hard. Here

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a disappearing act? xfba comments

Further investigation into the XFBA matter leaves us with these points: 1. The XFBA.org website is being dismantled (either that or edited to reflect the major changes in the organization). The front page no longer leads to any links into the information on their website, you have to access

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lifeasmission.com

Over at lifeasmission.com, JR writes a well thought out and well defined review of George Barna’s revolution. In wondering whether he is really a revoltionary or not, JR discovers that Barna’s own conclusions are still to individualist and based too much on statistics and not enough on

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when the buzzer sounds – xfba basketball

Ok – I’ve been holding my metaphoric tongue but there is a news flash concerning the XFBA (xzuberant faith basketball association). I’ve had tons of comments and hits of the blog today and this deems posting. largest set of comments another set of comments Here is what we know

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out in the open

Well I have felt a little reluctant to say much more, the comments are coming pretty quickly, many hits are happening on my blog, and so its kind of doing its own thing, but then there is more that has come to light concerning this whole matter involving the XFBA

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encouraging comments about the league

Here is new, and much more encouraging information, creating more accuracy with statements said here on this site and in other places as well as easing my mind a little. These are all quoted directly from sources that have contacted me directly (nothing’s been changed): To summarize, to this

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theological reflections on xzuberant faith

here is a letter I have written and emailed (xfmpstreetball@yahoo.com as well as xfmag@yahoo.com) to the leaders of the XFBA. Michael Heard, Gregory Railey and Jevon Blake, In this whole expose of trying to discover what is true and false about this basketball league I began

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Update #4

From a close source: 1) They never physically were allowed to hold a contract. One day it was read to them, then at the “signing” they were read something from the contract, then each team went up and signed the contracts (with no time to read them). There was no

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Update on Scam #3

This is from a friend looking into the situation. “I called Creflo Dollar’s organization. They have never heard of any of these guys, their league, their church – they have had no contact with them and know nothing about them. I also contacted Canton Better Business Bureau and they’ve