Tammy Faye Messner, the former wife of Jim Bakker of PTL fame, has passed away after struggling against colon and lung cancer for several years. On July 17, just three days before her death, Messner’s last message on her website announced that she had gained 5 pounds: up from her…
Carlton Pearson: The closest to God you’ll probably ever get
The Carlton Pearson curiosity continues. Over the last few weeks I’ve noticed the amount of search engine queries landing on this site have shot heavenward for Carlton Pearson. The searchers have typed: carlton pearson goes bad carlton pearson has cancer carlton pearson has lost his mind is carlton pearson gay?…
Thomas E. Trask: resignation effective — almost immediately
photo: escapedtowisconsin The Rev. E. Thomas Trask, General Superintendent of the General Council of the Assemblies of God, has announced his resignation. I will prepare a report with more details soon. Really. I will. Note: As promised, my long rambling cogitation is now available here. [tags]trask, tom-trask, thomas-trask, thomas-e-trask, general-superintendent,…
Making Art: photography, my gallery, and a rambling discourse
Hi. My name is Rich and I’m a tortured artist. The Confession Well, really, I’m more tortured, than artistic. And it may be argued that the artistic is more artifice than artful. But I try, nonetheless. Folks who don’t know me well (meaning just about everybody) don’t realize I have…
One Beautiful Bug: My Dragonfly House-Guest
Happiness is finding beauty in unexpected places. I try not to post too many things close together, but I was too excited about this to let it slide without posting. No, I didn’t get a job. Tonight I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. At first I…
The I Dig Jesus Meme: My Response
For the second time in my short life as a blogger, I’ve been meme-tagged by an evil blogging compatriot hoping to provoke me into playing a silly blog-tagging game, generating more content, and generally surrendering to mass hysteria. Okay. I’m in! But only because I’m a sucker for attention. And…
Kevin Miller’s Top Ten Tips (a roast video)
Back in May of 2006, while in the employ of Christianity Today International, I was asked to do a little something for my boss, Kevin Miller, a CTI vice president and leader of the Resources division. Kevin’s a great guy, a good friend, and an excellent manager — a true joy…
When church signs go awry: Stoners Welcome Here
And just what as the Reverend Billy H. Burris thinking on that day?Sign spotted at Praise Assembly of God in Springfield, Missouri. HT: DocLarry at Lost Chord [tags]BlogRodent, church, praise-assembly, assembly-of-god, assemblies-of-god, church-sign, funny, humerous, marijuana, pot, reefer, stoner, drugs[/tags]
Ruth Bell Graham, 1920 – 2007
The light of the Church on Earth is a bit dimmer today, but the chorus in Heaven is that much more joyful. Statement by the President Regarding the Death of Ruth Bell GrahamContact: White House, Office of the Press Secretary, 202-456-2580 WASHINGTON, June 14 /Standard Newswire/ — the following is…
Involuntary Self-Denial and Relationship Breakdown
Why so many problems begin with frustrated desire Every day, headlines assault us with troubling news. These recent titles from a local news website are just a small sampling: Two Shotgunned to Death [source] Joyriding Gang Member Slain; Crash Injures Family [source] Local Soldier Dies in Afghanistan [source] School Gets…
Podcast: AJ’s First Last Day – Graduating Kindergarten
Last week saw a milestone pass in our house: AJ enjoyed his very first last day of his very first year of schooling. He has now officially “graduated” kindergarten. We are very proud. [Blah, blah, blah — skip Rich’s philosophizing,and go straight to the podcast!] Never having parented before, and having…
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Tony and the red-letter Christianity
Social justice gets a bad rap among many Evangelicals and Fundamentalists, but Tony Campolo sets us straight.
Will also present for food: Internet Ministry Conference
It’s official: I’m presenting at the 2008 Internet Ministry Conference hosted by GospelCom. Gospel Communications has teamed up with the Internet Evangelism Coalition and now the two conferences, GospelCon and the Internet Evangelism Conference, have been merged. The conference serves two dual purposes: one is to train GospelCom’s ministry partners…
Sexual Conversion: Gender dysphoria, the UMC and the transgendered minister
I recently wrote about the relatively unremarked issue of gender dysphoria and believers opting for gender reassignment. I wrote that I had communicated with Assemblies of God leadership about this issue some years ago, and that I believed a position paper is in order — now, not at some later date…
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Ranking the Divine: The Holy Spirit and Search trends
I’ve often heard it said within Pentecostal circles that the Holy Spirit gets little recognition — even within our own Pentecostal and Charismatic circles. Of course, there’s some theological justification for this: According to Jesus’ promise in John 14:26, one of the Holy Spirit’s primary roles in the believer’s life is…
Will Social Network for Food
As most of you who regularly visit know, back in November of 2006 I was laid-off from CTI. It wasn’t anything nefarious or antagonistic — CTI always has been and continues to be very good to me, still tossing occasional freelance work and article assignments my way. (Hopefully because of my…
Shameless Self-Promotion: Blogger’s Choice Awards
Okay, I’ll fess up. I am a shameless self-promoter. Yes, I blog for the writing and for you, my Gentle Readers, but it’s also nice to get feedback and see real-world data that makes the feedback … um … exciting. So, some time back I nominated my own site, yes…
Hollywood: The modern Areopagus
Recently, I posted my Spider-Man Bible Study / Discussion Guide. Simultaneously, I dropped a few comments on some blogs that referenced a different Spider-Man Bible Study produced by Fuller Theological Seminary’s professor Craig Detweiler. Some GodBloggers have been critical of the whole “movie-based Bible study” enterprise. Not surprising, really: using…
Blog Stats: Get your info-jones on with weblog traffic metrics
Table of Contents Automattic FeedBurner Google Analytics QuantCast Others…? If you’re like me, you want to know whether anyone’s eating the meat you grind out from the butcher shop of ideas called your blog. Sure, there’s some measure of pride and ego involved: as your stats move ever upward your…
Spider-Man 3 Bible Study / Discussion Guide
My Spider-Man 3 movie-based Bible Study is here, at long last! I have permission from CTI to provide the study here on my site. Over the next few days or weeks, I’ll post the previous combo-study I wrote for Spider-Man 1 and Spider-Man 2 as well. Warning: the following contains…
Should Ministry Leaders Blog?
Hat tip to Michael Davis for alerting me to this question posed over at Total Leadership: “Should Ministry Leaders Blog?” Here are my thoughts… A blogger with a “why” beats one with only a “how” Blogging can be a waste of a leader’s time if he doesn’t know what he’s…
Site Outages
I apologize for any difficulty you’ve had recently connecting to the site. This blog is hosted on a shared server at SiteGround.com. Unfortunately, when you’re on a shared box you suffer along with hundreds of other providers whenever someone gets spammed, DDOSed, or hit by a runaway process or script.…
Spider-Man 3 Rocks!
Update: The Spider-Man 3 study can be found here. Yesterday I caught a premier press-screening of Spider-Man 3 and I’m officially here to tell you that this movie rocks! And, yes, before you criticize me, that is official trade lingo for a movie that … well … rocks! It may…
Spider-Man 3 Movie-Based Bible Study Coming!
Update: The Spider-Man 3 study can be found here. In early 2005 I wrote a Bible study for the Spider-Man 1 & 2 movies, currently only available via ChristianityToday.com. Last week I stopped by the offices of Christianity Today International and “volunteered” to freelance the Bible study for Spider-Man 3,…