In what has got to be one of the cruelest twists of history, Robert Burns (The great bard of Scotland) was the author of some of the most powerful and thoughtful poetry ever written by a common pen (To a Mouse; A Man’s a Man for a’ That;  Scots Wha Hae, etc…).  Yet, the one […]

We are all aware of how any distinctively Christian celebration of Christmas can so easily be lost in “frosty the snowman,” “Jack Frost nipping at your nose,” “Santa Claus finding out who’s naughty and nice,” “chestnuts roasting on an open fire,” and the list goes on and on.  What is hard to find is any […]

Julie and I just returned last night from Costa Rica where I had the joy of speaking at the Methodist Conference of Costa Rica. I also spoke at the graduation of the Evangelical Methodist Seminary, founded over thirty years ago by Bishop Luis Palomo, who is also a Trustee of Asbury Theological Seminary. The highlight […]

My wife, Julie and I just returned from spending Thanksgiving in Kwamadebe, Tanzania. Our daughter, Bethany, lives there along with a team of ten Christians in the hopes that the 40,000 Alagwesa people who live there might come to know Jesus Christ.  The travel which is required to get to this remote location is, in […]

One of the key themes in the Gospel is the declaration that the Gospel will be preached in “all nations.” Jesus, as the Risen Lord, commanded His disciples to make disciples of all nations. It is interesting that, on the popular level, we often interpret this as making disciples of “individuals.” However, Jesus said we […]

Rob Bell announced this week that his book Love Wins is now being re-released with a companion church study guide as well as a new e-version of the book with new video content. I will not rehearse here my earlier response to Bell’s book except to say that I pointed out several things about the […]

Many of us will remember Robert Fulghum’s book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. Basic principles like “play fair,” “don’t take things which aren’t yours,” “say your sorry when you hurt someone,” and “clean up your own mess” are just a few of the gentle reminders from Fulghum. The importance of […]

Last week we held a four day spiritual retreat in Orlando, Florida, for special friends of Asbury Seminary. This was the second in a series of four formation periods called Ascent whereby we set aside time to minister and invest in the spiritual growth of those who support the ministries of Asbury Seminary. Because we […]

This past weekend was the dedication of the Justo Gonzalez Center at Asbury Theological Seminary (Orlando). For those who may not know, Justo Gonzalez is the author of the multi-volume, A Story of Christianity, the premier survey of church history from a Latin American author. I read his church history volumes first in 1981, thirty […]

Christianity Today reported a few years ago that eighty-five percent of the members of Yale University’s Campus Crusade for Christ chapter are Asian, whereas “the university’s Buddhist meditation meetings are almost exclusively attended by whites.”[1. “Go Figure,” Christianity Today 47, no. 7 (June 2003): 13.]  There is an important lesson in this. It is often stated that […]