Join us under the Big Tent

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Confession: I get super jealous when everyone’s talking about a big conference I really want to attend but can’t because I’m a poor writer from a small town. You know how it goes. First comes the tweets, then the impassioned status updates, then a wave of inspired blog posts from the happy attendees whose lives have been changed by what they heard. I pretend to be excited for them, but deep down I’m green as the grass on the other side.  Well today I have the chance... read more

An Interview with Brian McLaren

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What is the overarching storyline of the Bible? What does it mean to say the Bible has authority? Is God violent? Who is Jesus and why is he important? What is the gospel? What is the function of the Church? Can we find a way to address human sexuality without fighting about it? Can our view of the future actually shape it? How should followers of Jesus relate to people of other faiths? What should we do next? If you think these are stupid questions and the answers to them no-brainers, you pro... read more

McLaren, Miller, and me

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Happy November! I hope you are enjoying the crisp air, blue skies, and vibrant colors that fall always delivers. Only a few weeks left until winter settles in. So this is going to be an especially exciting month for me, as I plan to attend several local events featuring popular authors/thinkers.  The first, beginning this weekend, features Brian McLaren and Tony Campolo. Hosted by First-Centenary United Methodist Church in Chattanooga, the three-day conference is named after a book that ... read more

Review of "Deep Church" + Your Thoughts on Creeds

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One of the perks of blogging is that sometimes you get free books in the mail to review on your site.  I have to admit that I was somewhat skeptical about Deep Church, the most recent book I received, in which Jim Belcher examines the divide between the emerging church and the traditional church in an effort to forge a third way. I know what you’re thinking. Define emerging. Define traditional…Oh, wait, you can’t.  How can there be a clear third way between such d... read more

Is the Emerging Church soooo last year?

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It is ironic and telling that within a few days of writing a post about how young people seem to be gravitating toward either neo-Reformed theology or the emerging church, I should come across a piece by Dan Kimball in which he speaks of the emerging/emergent phenomenon in the past tense. This has been happening a lot on the blogosphere recently. The general consensus among the movers and shakers the conversation-formerly-known-as-emerging seems to be this: “It was a wild ride. We learne... read more

Reformed or Emerging...Must We Choose?

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I ran across an old Mark Driscoll interview this weekend in which Driscoll was quoted as saying, “The two hot theologies today are Reformed and emerging. Reformed theology offers certainty, with a masculine God who names our sin, crushes Jesus on the Cross for it, and sends us to hell if we fail to repent. Emerging theology offers obscurity, with a neutered God who would not say an unkind word to us, did not crush Jesus for our sins, and would not send anyone to hell.” (Driscoll hims... read more

Book Club Discussion: The Gathering Center

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In The Great Emergence, internationally renowned religion expert Phyllis Tickle puts forth a theory that Christianity is currently experiencing a significant paradigm shift, the kind that only happens every 500 years or so. She calls it “the Great Emergence.” In Part 3 of the book, she describes this shift in terms of a “gathering center” in which Christians from the four corners (or quadrants) of Western Christendom—conservatives, renewalists, liturgicals, and s... read more

Book Club Discussion: Rejecting both absolutism and relativism

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I’m really excited about the book club selection for the month of May, How (Not) to Speak of God by Peter Rollins. Anyone who is curious about the theological and philosophical underpinnings of the emerging church movement will benefit from Rollins’ fresh and intelligent approach to the subject. It’s one of the best books about theology that I’ve read in years, my copy already suffering from the wear and tear of constant referral. Rollins starts by discussing two seemingl... read more

Why I've joined the "emerging conversation"

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By now, those of you who have known me for many years may have noticed that I think a bit differently than I used to. Like a lot of twenty-somethings who grew up in the conservative evangelical subculture, I’ve been increasingly drawn to the emerging church movement. (If you are unfamiliar with the emerging church, you might want to check out this article from Christianity Today, written by Scot McKnight. The movement is hard to define, but I think McKnight does a good job of addressing it... read more

Obama's speech and other videos

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Tech support (aka Dan) added a cool video feature to the blog. Now we can discuss (or just laugh at) my favorite You Tube videos. http://www.rachelheldevans.com/videoSome comments on the videos what I’ve posted so far:Video 1.  Barack Obama’s Speech on Race: This is the most moving and profound speech on race I’ve ever heard. Obama could have let the controversy over his pastor’s inflammatory remarks just fade into the woodwork, but instead he confronted the issue ... read more

Can I go to mass if I'm not Catholic?

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While driving around LaGrange, Georgia in desperate search of the local Wal Mart,  I found myself in the parking lot of St. Peter’s Catholic Church during its Saturday night mass. The place was packed, and from the outside I could hear the muffled harmonies of a choir.  It’s hard to explain, but I suddenly felt the urge to go inside. I’m not Catholic or Anglican, but I’ve recently felt a strong pull toward more traditional, liturgical expressions of worship. App... read more

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