Last Wednesday evening (April 9), some 150 people gathered in Fuller Seminary’s Travis Auditorium to sing old-time hymns. Young and old alike showed much enthusiasm in singing “Rescue the Perishing,” “Just As I Am,” “Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior,” and other hymns that have shaped both the worshiping life and the personal piety of […]
The Missouri Synod Lutherans are arguing with each other about “traditional” versus “seeker-sensitive” styles of being church. And the debate has spilled over into the pages of the Wall Street Journal. In its March 28 issue, the WSJ published an op-ed piece by Mollie Zeigler Hemingway, a former member of the denomination’s Board for Communication Services, criticizing...
We are getting ready to leave for Korea and Japan tomorrow. My main assignment on this trip is to deliver the first Underwood Lectures. This lectureship has been established by the oldest Protestant congregration in Korea, the Saemoonan Presbyterian Church, in cooperation with New Brunswick Theological Seminary. Horace Underwood, a graduate of New Brunswick, arrived in Korea...
I have been preparing a lecture on “seeker sensitive” preaching, and I decided to try to match wits a bit with Karl Barth. I remember reading Barth on the subject of preaching, where he insisted that sermons should not have either introductions or conclusions. I decided to re-read Barth on the subject, to refresh my own memory...
In their Reveal report, the folks at Willow Creek have taken a critical look at their own effectiveness in ministry. It is a fine example of public self-critique. A key finding is that a significant portion of their membership complains that their spiritual growth has been "stalled" in the Willow Creek context. This has led the leadership...
During this past October, 138 Muslim leaders released a letter that they had sent to Pope Benedict, calling for cooperation between Christians and Muslims in working to lessen tensions between the two religious communities. Of special interest was their clear critique of those who resort to violence in pursuing their religious aims: “To those who nevertheless relish...
We’ve been having conversations recently with laypeople—folks who support theological education—about how Fuller Seminary can respond effectively to the needs of local congregations. One topic that gets raised constantly is preaching. One woman put it bluntly: “Give us better preachers!”
I actually like the preaching I hear on a regular basis in...
Recently we hosted a celebration at Fuller Seminary of the life and mission of the late David Allan Hubbard, who served as Fuller’s president from 1963 to 1993. In our chapel service that day we sang several of David’s favorite hymns, and his love of hymns loomed large in the tributes to his marvelous leadership.
My...
Sorting through a pile of things on my desk this past weekend, I came across a brief report that I had set aside a few months ago, about a statement that Pope Benedict had issued in support of World Tourism Day. “I hope that tourism will increasingly promote dialogue and respect between cultures,” he had declared, “thereby...
At a convention of ethicists a week ago, I attended an intriguing presentation about capital punishment. The interesting–and disturbing–part of it for me was the overview presented, by a legal expert, on the actual practice of putting prisoners to death. He offered documentation of the fact that things often go wrong in actual executions. The process does...
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