Wandering Elder

A few weeks ago, I saw a sign in front of a church that read "KJV Preached Here."  For those of you who might not know what that means, it - first and foremost - means that that particular church reads from and will only read from the King James Version of the Bible.  That's the one with the "hence cometh" and "speaketh thee" language.  What that also likely  means is that particular church is a rather conservative one.  I base that on the sign as well as a second sign below that one that read, "Conservative Music Sung Here." I wasn't sure exactly what that meant.  I guess  it means that only particular traditional hymns are sung.  I don't think it means hymns that are right leaning, but more reflective of an older Christian tradition.  Though I do wonder if they would sing old high  church songs that might be technically older , but not reflective of their particular understanding of conservative music.  I would assume conservative

A few weeks ago, I overheard a gentleman speaking about an experience he witnessed in which a cook in the church kitchen threw a dash of some previously unused spice into a recipe that was pretty standard.  As the cook threw the spice in, they were reported to have said, "I wonder what made me do that.  Must have been the Holy Spirit." Hmmm. I have some trouble with that line of thought.  This is a kind of statement has a few implied ideas that I don't think we should overlook.  Perhaps I am reading far too much into this, but hear me out. To begin with, the first question that came to mind when I heard this story (and I know the cook in question and while I didn't hear them say it, I am quite confident that he did or certainly something akin to the statement) is this: can we have no good  ideas of our own?  I don't mean to demean this individual, but I had to wonder if the idea crossed their mind because they are a good and experienced cook.  Certainly, lik

I recently read that contemplative prayer is a tool of the Evil one.  I had no idea this was the case.  I had foolishly believed that contemplative prayer was a beneficial approach to spiritual growth.  Much to my surprise, when I did a search online about contemplative prayer, I found several websites that had much to say about why this particular type of prayer was anathema.  I won’t point you to particular web sites – just run a search and you will find them pretty quick.   What I will do is share some of their observations and, of course, mine in response. For example, one site said that contemplative prayer is a prayer in which a person clears their minds of outside concerns so that God’s voice may be more easily heard.  I didn't hear anything objectionable about that idea.  However, this particular writer quoted scripture (uh-oh) to point out how invalid this approach actually is.  So, according to the New Testament letter to the Philippians, “Do not be anxious abo

I recently learned that Marcus Borg passed away at the end of January.  You may not know who that is, but over the last 10 years I have found him to be a teacher and author who has greatly influenced my own thinking.  Borg, perhaps best known as a member of the Jesus Seminar, was a prolific writer and scholar.  His books have sold in the millions. I have several of his books on my shelves in the office.  Two in particular stand out.  The first is his book entitled Jesus , which was published in 2006.  I find it particularly insightful as a hermeneutic for considering Jesus in relation to the power structure that was the Roman Empire.  It isn't the end-all book on Jesus, none of them ever are.  But it provides a sober examination and depiction of Jesus that I find quite compelling. Borg's book Jesus seems to be written for people for whom the early stages of faith have passed (for more on that, I would encourage you to read James Fowler's classic Stages of Faith ), yet