Improving Seminary Education: What Churches Can Do

In my two previous posts I dealt with how seminaries can improve seminary education and how students can do the same.  This is my last post in this little series: how churches can improve seminary education.  If you’re a pastor with seminary students you may want to read the other two posts as some of the [...]

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Improving Seminary Education: What Students Can Do

I wasn’t intending to turn this into a series of posts, but as I was writing my previous post on how seminaries can improve seminary education I realized that the most guilty party of whatever is wrong with seminary education is getting off the hook.  That is, the student is the person most responsible for ensuring they [...]

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Improving Seminary Education: What Seminaries Can Do

Since The Gospel Coalition first posted some thoughts from evangelical leaders on how to improve seminary education many bloggers and commentors have offered their own thoughts on the matter.  Some think the seminary education is completely broken and needs to be torn up, others see little need for change.  I’m probably somewhere in the middle.  [...]

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Give Piper a Fist Bump (Or, Thoughts on Ecclesiastical Inbreeding)

John Piper has made some pretty big news for 2 completely different reasons in the last week.  The first was the announcement of his 8-month leave of absence, which you can read about here.  The second, and the impetus for this post, was the announcement that he has invited Rick Warren to speak at the Desiring [...]

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Surprised by Fasting

Our church is holding a three day corporate fast this week in preparation for our annual missions conference, shameless plug (a.k.a., World Mandate).  Danny suggested that in lieu of a food fast, I ought to fast from not blogging.  I agreed, only under the condition that Danny would fast from making me cry. My own [...]

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What Is the Purpose of a Sermon?

Preaching has always had a central role in the life and work of the church.  While they may look and sound different through the ages and cultures, sermons have always been around and show no signs of going away.  For some unknown reason, I began thinking about what the purpose of a sermon is.  Why [...]

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Are Charismatics Ruining the Term ‘Charismatic’?

It’s always interesting to see the reaction I get when I tell someone that I am a charismatic.  I’ve been getting weird looks since my undergrad days at a Baptist university.  Back then, it wasn’t so much that I was a charismatic, but that I, Danny Pierce, was a charismatic.  After all, I was a [...]

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The Authority of Experience

The scene is my first class in Systematic Theology at Gordon-Conwell.  The professor, Dr. Richard Lints, begins his lecture.  His first point, (at least, the first I remember), is that the theological project is not a matter of studying God, or putting God under the microscope, as it were.  Instead, good theology ultimately winds up with [...]

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RoTM: The Importance of the Sacraments

I can hardly call this post an RoTM, since, as Danny has noted, I have been decidely delinquent in posting lately.  I have several excuses for this, but rather than take ownership and responsibility for the management of my life, I will follow current social trends and blame somebody else, viz., Danny.  It may not [...]

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RoTM: Churching, Part I

It seems that I and my e-friend Steve both dislike the phrase “doing chuch,” so I will coin an alternative for this post: “churching.”  For my money, churching is an unbelievably difficult topic to tackle, though I wonder how much of the difficulty is self-inflicted.  Must it be so complicated, so nuanced, so controversial?  I would answer a [...]

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