Give Me More End-Zone Prayers

by | Apr 24, 2006 | Culture, General Theology, Humor

Lamb sacrifice in vain – Yahoo! News Football players praying and pointing skyward in the end zone after a touch down has been sometimes cute but more often annoying. Giving God glory for a touch down – well – that’s another post. Amazingly, some soccer fans have gone way beyond end-zone prayers. The link above tells of a Bulgarian butcher sacrificing a lamb and putting its blood on the posts of the goal in hopes that his lame team could win a game. Oh – and it was on the eve of the Orthodox Good Friday. Please! If end-zone prayers are what we need to have to avoid blood sacrifices, keep them...

Don’t Change Your Choices – Change Your Brain Cells

by | Apr 23, 2006 | Culture, Psychology

Top News Article | Reuters.com In our culture’s quest to wrest human responsibilty from any objective moral standards, out comes another scientific study that says scientists know where the brain determines what we choose.  Now that they have found it, the poor victims of compulsive gambling and eating disorders will no doubt soon have medications that will cause them to choose right instead of wrong. Oh no!  wait.  Who now will choose what is right and wrong?  The moral delima is not quite over.  Who will choose which behavior is excessive and which behavior is merely expressive?  If new drugs can be deveoped that cause people to make better choices, will scientists be able to instill something in the medication that provides the foundation for right and wrong? Silly?  Yes, I think so too.   It is silly to think that finding the part of the brain that grappels with choices will now lead to a revolution in behavior.  Yet, the quest for a victimized humanity continues.  What will be...

Training For The Ministry

by | Apr 21, 2006 | Ecclesiology, Pastoral Ministry

Challies Dot Com: Training For The Ministry Tim Challies writes on training for ministry.  I agree with his assessment for the need for formal ministry training.  He notes that we live in a day that tends to eschew formal theological training.  I would say that we have lived in such a day for many moons in this country.  Among Baptists of most flavors, formal training, from my own experience, has been strongly recommended, but certainly not required.  The early ministry of Baptists in pioneer areas in the western U.S. did not necessarily require theological degrees of its preachers. It did require being sent by a local church who recognized the man’s call and giftedness, but not necessarily a degree.  I would assume this was true of some other evangelical groups that were evangelizing the unconqurered...