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Bob Kaylor … In her excellent Old Testament survey The Epic of Eden, Sandra Richter says that we often approach the Bible as one would a disorganized and dysfunctional closet—that there’s a lot of seemingly random and unrelated stuff all cobbled together in one place. Many of us learned to read the biblical stories as […]

Bob Kaylor … The story of the Tower of Babel caps what most biblical scholars call the “pre-history” part of Genesis. Chapters 1-11 recount events that aren’t easily datable and seem to cover wide swaths of time. In many ways the story of the Tower is a bookend to the problem of human sin in […]

Timothy Tennent … One of the joys I have is the privilege of preaching in churches all across the country. I have seen the inside of dozens and dozens of sanctuaries. It is common for large churches to have a “traditional” service in the sanctuary and a “contemporary” service in a gym or some other […]

David F. Watson … While predictions of the future of Western Christianity are often dire, I am not discouraged. I believe in a God who can accomplish “abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine” (Eph 3:20), and, to quote Han Solo, “I can imagine quite a bit.” A recent article by Justin […]

Bob Kaylor … The third chapter of Genesis is one of the most important in the whole Bible and in all of human history. It describes the “fall” of humanity and the expulsion of the first humans from the garden paradise God had created for them. Genesis 4 picks up the story with the next […]

John Grimm the Methodist … That first sermon was a doozy! On a Saturday evening, I went to church to practice the sermon. I do not remember getting any practice accomplished. I do remember that I was on the floor, behind the pulpit, crying. I was probably at the church for an hour and a […]

Sidney Johnson … When I was confirmed as an Anglican, I joined the Anglican Church in North America, a province founded in 2008. However, the formation of the ACNA has a long and complicated history that stretches long before 2008. Much like organizations such as the Wesleyan Covenant Association were working behind the scenes in […]

Kevin M. Watson … It took me fourteen years to really understand this. Check out these unsolicited comments I received after the most recent class I taught at Asbury Theological Seminary’s Tulsa, OK Extension Site. (The class was Wesleyan Discipleship and it was awesome! I asked and received permission from each student to share their […]

David F. Watson … Before this week I was unfamiliar with Dr. Alicia Britt Chole. She preached all three of our morning chapel services during our Doctor of Ministry Intensive this week. Her topic was pastoral integrity. She was, I dare say, prophetic. In fact, she put on some great big, steel-toed combat boots and […]

Jeffrey Rickman … This is the first of a series on how and why the Methodist Revival was so offensive to its original context. Moreover, I believe most features of original Methodism continue to be offensive, which is why they have been slowly and intentionally forgotten. Original documents from the earliest days of Methodism reveal […]