Presby-Musings

This Sunday I am continuing my sermon series on the Bible as we seek to answer this all important question: "What authority does the Bible have over my life?" We used this text last week, which speaks right into the heart of what we'll be discussing this week: 2 Timothy 3:16-17 Last week I took a slightly different approach to answering questions of inspiration and the Bible.  Rather than turning the discussion into an apologetic exercise with big theological words and lots of footnotes, I simply encouraged the congregation to have inspirational encounters with Scripture. If you think that's cheating, sue me.  Apologetic exercises with big theological words and lots of footnotes aren't really doing a very good job of convincing both Christians and unChristians alike that the Bible is the inspired word of God.  I figured that actually reading it, studying it, engaging it and letting it fall afresh on us might be a better way of "proving" inspirati...

This week I am beginning a brief sermon series on the Bible entitled, "The Book."  This series had it's origins in a sermon planning workshop that I held with church members and staff recently.  One of their greatest concerns had to do with what they perceived as a lack of biblical literacy among the average church member. They're not the only ones concerned about the lack of biblical literacy in the Christian community.  You wouldn't believe how much ink has been spilled and hands have been wrung by pastors and denominational authorities over the fact that we seem to be fighting a losing battle when it comes to passing on Bible knowledge to emerging generations. Here's the thing, I am aware that it's nigh to impossible to cover the complexity and depth of the Bible in three sermons---which is why I am only taking on three major questions about Scripture that most of ask: 1.  Is the Bible the Inspired Word of God? 2.  What sort of authority does t...

I am attending the National Pastors Sabbath, which is sponsored by the Presbyterian Church (USA), the mainline Protestant denomination that I happen to call "home." Our main speaker this week was supposed to be renowned scholar, teacher and preacher Walter Brueggeman, but he was unable to attend due to a family issue. One of the other speakers this week, Frances Taylor Gench (author, minister and professor at Union Theological Seminary) gamely stepped up to the plate to fill all of Dr. Brueggeman's speaking and workshop spots. I am glad she did. Now don't get me wrong. I would listen to Brueggeman any day of the week, and consider it an honor. But on this particular weekend, I needed to hear what Gench had to say. Gench is the author of the new book "Faithful Disagreement: Wrestling with Scripture in the Midst of Church Conflict." She was also a member of the Peace Unity & Purity Taskforce for the PC(USA). Since I had just finished reading N.T. Wri...