Adaptability or Consistency?

I just finished the book Christianity’s Dangerous Idea by Alister McGrath.  First of all, I highly recommend the book.  It’s an excellent treatment of the issues surrounding the Reformation and all its major players from Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, Bucer and others. One of the things it talked about was how Protestantism, outside of the Lutheran [...]

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Internet Monk: The Value of Liturgy

There’s an excellent discussion over at iMonk’s site about liturgy.  I wanted to highlight one response from a Baptist minister in particular because he comes from a decidedly “non-liturgical” background.  I’ve said similar things in describing why I like liturgy to my anti-liturgy friends but he does an even better job.  Go check the full [...]

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Ash Wednesday

May the Lord bless all of you as we move into this penitential season of Lent. I pray that He will grant you His grace as you enter this focused time of prayer and fasting, helping you grow in holiness and in the fruits of the Spirit. I’ll leave you today with this collect from [...]

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10 Really Bad Reasons Not To Have The Lord’s Supper

From The Blogging Parson. My favorites:7. We haven’t had it for so long that now it is weird. 10. Having done away with the old formal ways of doing the Lord’s Supper, we can’t decide on a new, less formal way of doing it that isn’t awkward and weird. Read the rest at his blog.

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Protestants and "Spiritual" Means vs "Tangible" Means

I’m reading This Is My Body: An Evangelical Discovers The Real Presence by Mark Shea. It’s a short read, only about 50 pages long. But it’s really posing some interesting thoughts to me and one passage in particular stuck out. He’s speaking of the Protestant suspicion of anything that smacks of “works” religion or falling [...]

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Confession is good for the soul

I’ve been thinking about this recently. Right now, the groups or denominations of Christians that practice confession to a pastor or priest are Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, some Anglicans/Episcopals, some Lutherans and possibly one or two others. The vast majority of Protestants don’t do this for reasons we’re probably all familiar with: arguments about no mediator [...]

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Who decided?

As I’ve been exploring more traditional worship approaches in recent months, I’ve noticed something going on and I’m still trying to work out in my head what it means. When I first began to ponder what I was looking for, I thought what I wanted were a few simple traditional elements: more hymns and less [...]

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Prayers

I’ve enjoyed using the prayers in the Book of Common Prayer, particularly the Morning and Evening Prayers from the 1928 BCP. But while I don’t mind using the more formal language (Thee, Thy, Thine, etc.) for prayers in corporate settings, it seems too formal during personal prayer times. So I updated the language a little. [...]

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I’m not alone

Well, I know I’m not alone from some from reading some of the combox entries here. But sometimes around here I feel that way. There’s an excellent article at Christianity Today on the movement in evangelical circles toward revisiting the past, as in liturgy, the Christian calendar, Advent, even the Divine Hours, candles and incense. [...]

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So you call yourself an traditionalist?

Well, for various reasons mostly surrounding the children’s program, we decided that the Anglican church we’ve been attending probably isn’t the place for us. We haven’t ruled it out down the road, but feel it’s probably best to look at some other places. Today, one of my girls was sick with a cold so my [...]

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Being wary of legalism and man-made traditions

So, getting back to my background in legalistic Christianity… All of this stuff from my past makes me highly suspicious of anything that smacks of man-made tradition. I spent so long trying to earn God’s favor, trying to live up to standards that humans, not God, imposed on me and the thought of ever getting [...]

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Yes, I’m Schizophrenic

Not really. Not that way anyway. Not the kind that spends half the day thinking one is the King of England and requires medicine. No, I’m schizophrenic* because on the heels of the linked article at the Internet Monk’s blog and subsequent posts supporting the notion that a more traditional, mainline type church is what [...]

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Mainline Churches: We’re Having A Moment Here

July 25th, 2007 by Michael Spencer In Appreciation for Bishop William Willimon. Mainline churches….we’re having a moment here. Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans, Disciples of Christ…do you know what I mean? We’re having a moment, and it’s slipping right by. What moment? We’re having a moment when thousands of evangelicals are getting a bellyful of the [...]

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