The Original Sin of Preaching: The Constant Craving for a Useful God in Pulpit and Pew
By Magnus Persson
03/25/26
12mins

The Original Sin of Preaching: The Constant Craving for a Useful God in Pulpit and Pew

God is not a tool in our hands. He does not exist to serve our goals, our metrics, or our platforms.
Even Chuck Norris Needed a Savior
Russ Lackey
Russ Lackey
03/23/26

Even Chuck Norris Needed a Savior

The gospel isn’t for the strong but people who know they aren’t.
Post-Denominational Lutheranism
John W. Hoyum
John W. Hoyum
03/20/26

Post-Denominational Lutheranism

One great thing about our post-denominational age is that it has opened up opportunities to make common cause with other Lutherans who, despite their differences and eccentricities, can agree on some of the most important things.

All Articles

Steve Byrnes
Steve Byrnes
07/28/14

A Cheech and Chong Prayer Life

My prayer life is, first and foremost, a pitiful and distracting thing and my experience of answers delayed has often felt like Cheech's experience on the bench in this skit with Chong playing the roll of prayer answerer.
Rick Ritchie
Rick Ritchie
07/22/14

Life Together Under the Cross (Part 4)

"For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst." This should therefore be our starting place for understanding the basis of the doctrine.
07/18/14

It's Okay to Use Reason to Attack Christian Faith But Not Defend It?

Some consider apologetics, with its emphasis on rational arguments and empirical evidence, a distinctly “modern” enterprise. Thus, however legitimate or useful it might once have been, now that we have taken an allegedly “postmodern” turn.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
07/16/14

Trash and Treasure

Who are we, really, but a bag of blood and bones, in which are mixed in bittersweet memories and the shards of shattered dreams and broken hearts?
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
07/11/14

Please Don’t Say These Six Things at My Funeral

Because I do care now, and will care even after I’m with the Lord, here are some things I hope and pray are not said at my funeral. I care about those who will be there, about what they will hear.
Jeff Mallinson
Jeff Mallinson
07/09/14

What's Wrong with Apologetics? False Humility (Part 2)

In an American evangelical landscape that emphasizes the importance of an individual’s personal decision to follow Jesus—as if that were the basis for God’s grace towards a man or woman—Lutherans and Reformed Christians insist that justification before God is based solely on Jesus’ work, two millennia ago.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
07/08/14

God Doesn't Look for the Right Kind of People to Believe

You think the sower sowed his seed in you because he saw such good soil, such a good, generous, noble person.
Daniel Deen
Daniel Deen
07/07/14

Darwin, Science, and Religion

Huxley, Dawkins, Hodge, and Plantinga characteristically illustrate Ian Barbour’s conflict model. The idea is that the universe is not big enough for the likes of science and religion to coexist. The conflict proponent, whether pro-science or pro-religion, adopts an attitude of total domination.
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
07/03/14

The Math of Mercy

Paul is on a roll. He's adding up all the things that can separate you from the love of God in Jesus Christ. And the total? Nothing, zilch, zero.
Rick Ritchie
Rick Ritchie
07/03/14

Life Together Under the Cross (Part 3)

We have to trust that there is value in these conversations. They are not valuable only when they can be counted as a program. And what are most programs but attempts to get us to “act like” Christians at some future point of time?
Chad Bird
Chad Bird
07/02/14

Have We Made Christianity Too Easy?

Have we made Christianity too easy? No, God has made Christianity “too easy” because He has made it pure gift.
07/01/14

Christianity as Philosophy? (Part 2)

To determine whether the conception of Christianity as philosophy might actually be warranted, attention must be given to the actual natures of philosophy and religion, especially as then understood.
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