Innovate~Educate~Collaborate

Tag: patristics

  • Lumen Gentium Are you still with us?

    DOGMATIC CONSTITUTION ON THE CHURCH:  LUMEN GENTIUM. “Thus, the Church has been seen as ‘a people made one with the unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.'(4*).” Many scholars believe this document, Lumen Gentium (Light for the Nations) is likely one of the most important. Christ is light for all the nations,…

  • Vatican II. Are you there?

    This blog and subsequent blogs for the next few weeks, that I will write, will center on the Documents of Vatican II. An event in the Catholic Church with attendance and participation by mainline protestant denominations back in the 1960s. John XXIII, a pope, chosen because many believed, at the time he would be a…

  • Gospel, Grammar, and the Infallibility of Dogma — Eclectic Orthodoxy

    Dogmas are the constitutive doctrines that define the Christian faith. Such dogmas must be believed by Christians, because they articulate essential dimensions of God’s self-revelation in Christ and thus norm the Church’s proclamation of the gospel. I have found Lutheran ecumenist George Lindbeck of great assistance in understanding the nature of dogma. In his groundbreaking […]…

  • Are Prayers to Guardian Angels Apostolic? — Orthodox Christian Theology

    While much of what separates Protestants from Orthodox (or any branch of Apostolic Christianity) is couched in soteriological differences, if we are honest the main points of differences pertain to orthopraxy. The Orthodox stand, they repeat prayers, they have icons, they sort of believe in Purgatory, they pray to saints/angels as well as God, and […]…

  • The Baptism of Jesus and The Missing Verses in the Lectionary Gospel Text — pastordawn is a Lutheran minister from Canada with great insights and reflections

    While musing on the readings for this coming Sunday, I came across these notes that I made when these readings came up – Baptism of Jesus 2010. I offer them to my preaching colleagues in the hope that we might move beyond the story as it has been read during worship so that we might […]…

  • God? Are you really there? Hello!

    God? Are you really there? Hello!

    It’s a dark, dreary day, I look out the window and think, Is God really there? Often we find ourselves wondering how is it we are supposed to believe in a God that we just can’t possibly wrap our heads around? At what point in our life did we struggle with the concept that if…

  • Has your idea​ of God changed?

    Has your idea​ of God changed?

    Deciding what is real and not is most definitely not a democratic process.  So keep that thought when you are thinking about the reality of God. Determining if God is real or not is not a democratic process.  

  • The God Question: Is Perceiving believing?

    The God Question: Is Perceiving believing?

    So too with God. Where did you get all those “experiences” about God? What judgments have you made about God based on the experiences? The distortions? The perceptions? Who told you God exists? Why did you believe? Or not believe? How much of what you know is trust based?

  • THE e-CHURCH MODEL FOR THE 21ST CENTURY: A call for re-discipleship

    The church is a community of the Spirit giving witness of the Trinity to an alternative and hopeful future of a community of disciples. We must realize we live in the midst of profound social and cultural change driven by the fourth industrial revolution of digital technology and globalization. Churches of all types and denominations…

  • Does your church have a distance problem?

    Physical distance is as much an issue for churches as it is for business. Think of “Extended Reality” (XR) and the role it could have in your church, your missional activities and creating discipleship. If you think about all the ways, we connect with our congregations, and when you look at the core, it is…