Between the Trees

I have the strangest roommates ever: We spent our Thursday night watching Mark Driscoll debate Deepak Chopra about the existence of Satan while drinking beer and smoking. We cheered and laughed at some of Driscoll’s best lines.
Basically, picture the typical college guy gathering to watch a bowl game, but change the TV from a bowl [...]

New column is up at the DN.

“Jeff McKissack is spreading the Batman gospel to youth pastors in Dallas and across the country. He hopes to convert them into followers of the Keysi Fighting Method, the street fighting style used in recent cinematic blockbusters. McKissack figures that pastors who know how to defend themselves against thugs can help protect the children they [...]

Must-reading from Adbusters, this is one of the best pieces I’ve read looking at hipster culture.
“We are a lost generation, desperately clinging to anything that feels real, but too afraid to become it ourselves. We are a defeated generation, resigned to the hypocrisy of those before us, who once sang songs of rebellion and now [...]

One of the greatest crimes in many Christian circles is that most of our good theology is so boring to read.
I’ve been thinking about this fact lately, and not just because I’ve been doing a pile of theology reading for seminary. As I’ve spent time over the years in writing and public speaking, I consistently [...]

Since there’s no way I’m going to be able to give this blog as much time as I would like this semester (short version of the explanation: working 30 hours a week and taking 16 hours of course work), I’m going to start linking to my columns from the UNL campus newspaper, the Daily Nebraskan. [...]

Before we discuss a good definition of evangelism, I’d like to offer a story about the difference between what we make of the gospel and what it truly is.
There was once a rather misguided young man. One day, he decided that the attractive young woman he had been dating was, indeed, his soul mate. By [...]

Once John Piper was listening to a well-known Christian speaker talking about issues related to post-modern culture and the many problems inherent in a post-Christian culture that is ultimately relativistic and has no basis for law or morality. They’ve essentially sat on a branch, and then cut the branch free from the tree to which [...]

The bible is not about evangelism, at least as many evangelicals have come to think of the word. If you’re cheering that statement, now let me shake you up: The bible is not about evangelism, it is evangelism. It is about the story of God restoring peace and justice to the cosmos, destroying sin and [...]

This series on evangelism should run for the rest of the week, a post a day. It’s one of those things that was going to be a short post and exploded into a small treatise, so I hope you enjoy!
A friend recently asked why it seems more acceptable in many churches to talk about social [...]