The Rambling Disciple

There is an ongoing discussion raging in many Christian circles concerning what to do with ministers, pastors, and other leaders who are accused of abuse, assault, and other harmful activities. The discussion is not about whether or not these individuals should be disciplined, everyone agrees that they should be, but rather what comes next. At what point does a leader who has been abusive in the past become eligible to lead again?  Some believe that those who have been proven to be predatory and abusive as leaders should be disqualified from church leadership for the rest of their lives. They should be forgiven, but what they did should not be forgotten. Others feel uncomfortable with this. They believe that Christianity is a religion of forgiveness and that it would be wrong to permanently bar someone from leadership if they have reformed. These leaders should be forgiven and their past sins blotted out. The tricky thing here is that both sides of this advocate for forgiveness tow...

How many Bible studies have you attended in your life? I can say that I've attended my fair share, both as teacher and as participant. There are few things in life that I love more than gathering together with a group and working through Scripture together. In particular I love it when there is a good, robust discussion about God or Christ or something that challenges us. Having primarily been the discussion leader the past several years, I can tell you that it can be tricky to come up with good questions that stimulate conversation. It's something that I've gotten significantly better at over the years, but it can still be a challenge. There is one question that I hear a lot of teachers or discussion leaders ask that for a long time I used to absolutely hate.  "What does this verse/passage mean to you?" My dislike of this question began while studying Bible at Harding. I was learning all about context, hermeneutical methods, and exegesis. We had it drilled into o...

Something I've noticed is that people will often assume what you believe about many things based solely upon what you believe about one thing. This is true about politics, entertainment, religion, and pretty much everything else. For example, I really enjoy Star Trek and therefore I've had family members and friends just assume I like other shows just because I like this one franchise. That's an example where it really doesn't matter, but this sort of thing happens a lot. If you indicate you agree with Democrats or Republicans on one, singular issue many people automatically jump the conclusion that you must buy into their whole platform. Instead of being willing to examine each and every issue separately we instead package our beliefs into bundles. We assume that if you agree with A then you must also agree with B and C while disagreeing with Y and Z. The same is true for matters of faith and theology. Part of what it means to be a Christian is the content of our belie...