Jesus: Revolutionary of Revolutionaries

I’ve got a new post at Wrecked for the Ordinary today entitled “Jesus: Revolutionary of Revolutionaries.” Go check it out.

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Marching for Justice

his past Friday, May 1, 2009, I joined with thousands of others across the country in marching for immigrant and worker’s rights. I was part of the march that began in Echo Park in Los Angeles, went down Sunset Boulevard, and concluded in front of Our Lady of Queen Angeles Church near historic Olvera [...]

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Reflections on Two Years with the Homeless

I’ve spent the last, roughly, two years working at a homeless shelter. In fact, this is the first Monday in a long while that I haven’t spent at the shelter doing things like helping homeless men create and stick to a budget, look for work, gain self-esteem, and learn life skills like cooking, opening [...]

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What Makes a Minister “Excellent”?

The Fund for Theological Education, of which I was a fellow, has published a report based on several consultations entitled Faithful to the Call: Reflections on Excellence in Ministry. Everyone involved in, or considering, ministry should check out the report. Below is a quick synopsis of the report that was posted on the [...]

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Updates on U.S. Sponsored Torture

If you haven’t heard, President Obama released four memos from the Bush administration approving of and describing acts of torture used by our government. You can read about it here and here and here. I was asked by the people at the God’s Politics blog to write a piece regarding this announcement since [...]

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The Bible as a Social Justice Manifesto

Tonight and tomorrow the Glendale Church of Christ in Glendale, CA is hosting the First Annual Risen Young Adults Conference. The theme this year is “How to Start a Riot: Lessons from Acts.” I am one of the speakers tomorrow, and the title of my session is entitled “The Bible as a Social [...]

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50 MORE Ways to Love a Neighbor (or an Enemy)

Yesterday I posted Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove’s and Shane Claiborne’s 50 suggestions on loving our neighbors/being the answer to our prayers. (I’m excited that there’s a book now out on this topic since I preached a sermon with this idea, that we are the answer to our neighbor’s prayers, just a couple months ago.) [...]

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50 Ways to Love a Neighbor (or an Enemy)

I recently came across this wonderfully helpful list by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove for all of those who say, “I want to love and serve others, but I don’t know how or where to start!” Well, here’s an extremely helpful list. Pick one and start. Oh, and go ahead and leave any other ideas [...]

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Ten Books that have Transformed my Faith

1. Strength to Love/A Testament of Hope by Martin Luther King, Jr. A Testament of Hope is probably the best one volume collection of MLK’s writings and speeches. Strength to Love is a collection of MLK’s sermons that was published during his life. King’s thinking about nonviolence, civil disobedience, the interconnectedness of [...]

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Recent Reading

What About Hitler?: Wrestling with Jesus’s Call to Nonviolence in an Evil World by Robert Brimlow. Brimlow begins with the belief that Jesus clearly and uncompromisingly teaches his disciples to practice lives of nonviolence. If one does not accept this presupposition, which I do, this isn’t the book to start with if [...]

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Christian America and the Kingdom of God (Coming Soon!)

I’m very excited for the release of Christian America and the Kingdom of God by Richard T. Hughes on July 22, 2009. Dr. Hughes is currently a professor at Messiah College, but he was my Church History professor while I was at Pepperdine University. Dr. Hughes has devoted much of his scholarship to [...]

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The Role of the Academic Theologian

As someone who has made the somewhat crazy decision to pursue a doctorate in the academic study of Christian ethics I found these two posts, by Jonathan Walton and Tony Jones, at Religion Dispatches very interesting:

Is the Theologian an Antiquated Relic of a Dying Institution?
Are Academic Theologians Useless? Part II
Interestingly, I was just talking with [...]

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