Category Archives: Church

Is the church just after your money?

Posted on March 5, 2016 by salooper57

Is the church just after your money? If anyone wants to believe that’s true, he or she will have little trouble finding supporting evidence. There are the TV preachers, crowding the airwaves, urging their video flocks to send them money … Continue reading →

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Bible reading for rugged individualists

Posted on February 6, 2016 by salooper57

(Note: The effects of strident individualism on theology generally and on biblical interpretation specifically deserves a more developed treatment. I hope this article will wet some readers appetite to go further. ) Herbert Hoover, that stalwart Republican champion of smaller … Continue reading →

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Without this, Christianity ceases to be Christian

Posted on November 1, 2015 by salooper57

Some religions are impossible to imagine apart from their founders. Can anyone picture Islam without Muhammed, or the Latter Day Saints without Joseph Smith, or Scientology without L. Ron Hubbard? In other religions the human founder is historically important but … Continue reading →

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How does a church measure success?

Posted on October 26, 2015 by salooper57

The other day my wife accused me of harboring a secret desire to be a race car driver. We were on vacation in Tennessee, hiking state parks and national recreation areas. Getting to those places sometimes meant driving serpentine roads, … Continue reading →

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Be careful not to stare into the wrong eyes

Posted on August 8, 2015 by salooper57

I was in the Istanbul airport this summer, standing at Passport Control, while a uniformed officer went through my papers. He was scowling. He looked at my passport picture, then at me, then back at my papers. I couldn’t tell … Continue reading →

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Why I’m Still an Evangelical

Posted on June 6, 2015 by salooper57

In 1987, the controversial Catholic priest Hans Kung famously published a book titled, “Why I am Still a Christian.” For some reason that book, which I read many years ago, came back to my mind recently, and started me thinking … Continue reading →

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Give your message “street cred”

Posted on February 7, 2015 by salooper57

When my children were still young and I was pastoring in another city, my wife and I took the kids downtown one Sunday afternoon and walked around the square and up and down the street. Downtown was unusually empty that … Continue reading →

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Why does more wedding equal less marriage?

Posted on January 31, 2015 by salooper57

If you spend more than $20 thousand on a wedding, you are almost twice as likely to divorce as a couple spending between $5 and $10 thousand. Spend less than $1 thousand, and you are more than twice as likely … Continue reading →

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Salvation-lite: Great Benefits…Less Responsibility?

Posted on January 10, 2015 by salooper57

It was once quite common to hear people say, “I was saved in Vacation Bible School,” or “I was saved in a small group Bible study.” What did they mean by that? Saved from what? Saved for what? In what … Continue reading →

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We need the Answerer more than the answers

Posted on January 1, 2015 by salooper57

Our church has been on an emotional roller coaster in the last few weeks. We had three young families, all expecting their first babies within a few days of Christmas. The first of the babies, a beautiful little girl named … Continue reading →

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