Monthly Archives: July 2014

BLOG 7/30/14. LATIN AMERICAN BISHOPS, PRIESTS, PARISHES … THEN VIOLENCE, TRAGEDY, AND EXILES TO NORTH AMERICA. Several years ago there was a remarkable conference of the Roman Catholic bishops from Latin America and the Caribbean, and attended briefly also by … Continue reading →

BLOG 7/27/14. AT THE RISK OF SEEMING PEDANTIC—THE WORD: CHURCH All right, so I am being a bid pedantic, but the very word ‘church’ is a source of confusion to many, and in my own quest to help liberate the … Continue reading →

7/23/14 BLOG: YES, CHURCHES CAN DIE, YOU KNOW. SOME ARE ALREADY DEAD AND DON’T KNOW IT. … BUT, THERE IS HOPE! It’s not as though the reality of churches becoming dead is some dismal or pessimistic evaluation that I alone … Continue reading →

BLOG 7/20/14. A HUMOROUS THOUGHT: WHAT WOULD JOHN OLIVER DO WITH ‘THE CHURCH’? For those who are unfamiliar with him, John Oliver has recently emerged as a very colorful comedian-commentator on HBO, and is already sort of a cult-figure with … Continue reading →

7. BLOG 7/16/14. ‘CHATTANOOGA CHOO-CHOO’ CHURCHES For all of you youngsters … sixty years ago one of the most popular songs one heard was: Chattanooga Choo-Choo. It had a nice beat to it, and it was on all the media. … Continue reading →

BLOG 7/13/14. WE ARE CHRIST’S FRIENDS AND DISCIPLES IF WE OBEY HIS COMMANDS—THERE IS A SOBERING PRAGMATISM IN CHRIST’S INVITATION. From the outset, Jesus makes no secret that his followers/friends/disciples are to be engaged in the very things that he, … Continue reading →

BLOG 7/9/14. EVERY BELIEVER EQUIPPED: THE TEACHING-SHEPHERD As I have been proposing in these recent Blogs, Jesus announced to his bewildered disciples that: “I will build my church” … but then didn’t give them any algorithm of what their role … Continue reading →

BLOG 7/6/14. UNBELIEVING CHURCH MEMBERS … OR CONTAGIOUS DISCIPLES OF CHRIST? Let’s continue where we left off in the last Blog. Let’s acknowledge that all too much of the church scene, i.e., the image of church institutions replete with professionals … Continue reading →

7/2/14 BLOG. THE CHURCH: REPRODUCTIVE … OR PASSIVE-DEPENDENT? Anyone who has read the accounts of the church in its earliest days cannot miss the fact that “the word (of Christ) went everywhere.” The contagiousness of such an awesome message, so … Continue reading →