Posts under ‘Culture & Trends’

This post is meant as a follow-up to to Empty Promises Part I, which I published about a month ago (before a hiatus for my marriage proposal and the holidays). So if you don’t remember the thoughts there, go ahead and re-read Part I if you would like this to make sense. I guess I want [...]

I have a confession. I love Justin Bieber. I love his voice, anyway. And his songs are so darn catchy! To be honest, I cringe to think about the effect that millions upon millions of sceaming girls has upon the ego of a 15 year-old male, but you’ve got to admit…the kid’s really good. But [...]

Chuck Colson and friends recently issued a document known as the Manhattan Declaration. The group hopes to affirm a biblical worldview in politics, and present it to Congress as a means of unifying Christians under common convictions that they claim are bipartisan, or rather non-partisan. Although the affirmations in the document are fairly consistent with the [...]

As I understand it, the really trendy Christian thing to do is to bash Black Friday and bemoan the reality that American consumerism has reached the point where people are literally getting trampled to death at Wal-Mart. Then among the Christians, the still more progressive voices have begun to take a long look in the mirror instead. [...]

Discussing the Southside baptism party got me thinking about some greater truths. I think there are some greater lessons about holiness to be learned from it. To explain the title for this post, Dictionary.com defines apologetics this way: a-pol-o-get-ics [uh-pol-uh-jet-iks] : (noun) The branch of theology concerned with the defense or proof of Christianity. For a [...]

There is a storm brewing on the college campuses in America. With the emergence of the merit-based economy of YouTube, Wikipedia, and the blogosphere, anyone with a worthwhile insight, novel thought or creative idea can be an influencer. For the first time in history, each one of us has a real shot at ”going viral” and become a household name overnight. This decentralization [...]

There seems to be a developing conversation around church relevance. I don’t say that because people are just starting to become interested in church relevance (that’s been happening since Luther and the printing press), but because some people are really starting to challenge its modern conception. At the Cultivate Conference, I repeatedly heard the same question: “How can your [...]

The Passion Conferences crew is one of the Church’s most prominent faces to the college demographic globally. I wanted your thoughts about whether you think their newest video effectively communicates the Gospel to that generation. I specifically would love to hear from those of you who don’t identify as Christian. Does this connect with you? [...]

The following videos have been stirring up conversation across the Church blog world for the past couple months, and I didn’t want to just jump on board and be unoriginal. But I specifically wanted to post them because I want to launch a discussion on this blog, with my own friends/readers. Please watch the videos and comment on this [...]

The provocative documentary Lord, Save Us From Your Followers premiered last weekend  in select cities throughout the U.S. I’m really excited about this project because of the conversation it starts. I think the title makes it accessible and intriguing to non-Christians, and hopefully not too offensive to Christians.  The movie explores which expressions of American Christianity are [...]