The Simple Pastor

In the entry on the Lord’s Supper in Roger Olson’s A-Z of Evangelical Theology he mentions Stanley Grenz’s attempt to ‘breathe new life into evangelical celebration of the Lord’s Supper.’ Grenz emphasized three elements history, eschatology and community. “For him, the ordinance has three distinct orientations by which it establishes the individual believer’s identity in relation to [...]

I’m continuing to think through, the hows, whys and wherefores of the Lord’s Supper and what it might mean to be devoted to it (Acts 2:42). So I’ve begun by mining my bookshelves for insights and ideas, feel free to make suggestions. One of the first books I picked up was Roger Olson’s A-Z of [...]

Hopefully not as a result of my flattering them, but the folks over at What You Think Matters asked me to contribute to a debate on poverty and inequality. It started with this post on inequality, a response by Matt Hosier and maybe one or two more to come. Join in the debate as there are [...]

There are a lot of blogs that I like to read and I use Google Reader to track currently 84 different blogs (that number goes up and down a bit as I opt in and out). Over the past year I’ve noticed that I’ve starred posts from one blog more than any other for further [...]

OK, so this was my final round-up and then a whole load more interesting and helpful posts were published and so the blogger in me feels compelled to post. I’m hoping to get a review copy of Bell’s book soon, so I’ll try and get a review up and then revise my post on Lewis, [...]

I’m not sure I’m going to do many more of these, my interest is waning (at least until I read the book myself) but here are the reviews, the reaction and the interviews all in one handy place just for you. Reviews Kevin DeYoung has done the refuting review. It’s been made into a pdf [...]

I continue to ponder the Rob Bell and hell controversy and at the moment it centres on a refrain I’ve now heard a number of times from a number of different sources. But before we get to that, here’s a good reminder on how to have a good argument. The issue is why can’t some [...]

It’s increasingly clear that evangelicals are no longer clear about how to think clearly about hell. In other words we are confused. Yet it remains important for us to think about it because we can’t just not think about such things and hope it will go away. So here are a few more web offerings [...]

So connecting Bell, Keller and Lewis on their thoughts about hell attracted a bit of attention and helpfully I was sent a few links which are worth reposting here. Do read Dave Bish on Love Wins: How do you talk about heaven and hell well? Thanks to Rob for digging the article How willingly do [...]

As I suggested yesterday, the latest blog controversy is well under way. Here’s a little round-up and a few early thoughts just to keep the pot simmering till we’ve all had chance to read Rob Bell’s latest book. Tim Challies reflects on the speed of the web in promoting controversy David Capener wonders whether our [...]

Adrian Warnock’s post on a spectrum of thought between Calvinism and Arminianism created a fair bit of debate in the blogosphere. Interestingly Roger Olsen responded rejecting the possibility of a spectrum saying, “I admire and applaud any attempt to show that classical Calvinism and classical Arminianism are both Christian theologies.  But placing them on a [...]

Adrian Warnock continues to post on Calvinists and Arminians with his view of the spectrum of beliefs and the follow up. To be honest I can’t really see the difference between his soft and moderate Calvinists or that ‘soft Calvinists’ have a position worth holding. As for his description of Arminians he’s likely to confuse [...]