For years, I’ve been troubled by how many churches spend money—God’s money, as we call it. When I’m in church, I often look around at all the sound equipment, chandeliers, carpets, decorations, and everything else that’s “necessary” to pull off a church service week after week. I’m not a troublemaker, so I usually keep my mouth shut. But I’ve often wondered: Is all this stuff necessary for discipleship? Are there other ways that we could spend our money that would more effectively further the kingdom of God? If we pulled way back on our church expenses, would we be able to send more missionaries overseas? Or rescue little girls from sex-trafficking? Or help the poor around us?

There may be good reasons for believing that homosexuality is a sin, but there are also some very bad reasons. For what it’s worth, I don’t even like the phrase “homosexuality is a sin.” I explain why in my book People to Be Loved.

April 5, 2015, Easter Sunday was the first time in 23 years I stepped foot in a church. Having struggled with Same Sex Attraction, the Evangelical Church severely damaged me and wiped out my faith by treating people with SSA with hate, rejection, and disgust.

Before we dive in, I want to thank you all for offering helpful feedback during this series. Through Tweets and DM’s, comments and texts, emails and phone calls, my thinking has been tremendously shaped by people interacting with my posts.

I  suggested in my last post that what we’re talking about here is largely (though not exclusively) a white problem. Instead of adding the word “white” to everything I say, though, I’ll just stick to the terms “Millennial” and “church” with the understanding that what we’re talking about may not apply to churches made up of racial minorities.

The following post is an interview. But instead of me interviewing an author, this time the author is going to interview me. We thought it'd be good to mix it up a bit.

Millennials are leaving the church for all sorts of reasons. And as I showed in a previous blog, there are different types of Leavers. However, after combing through various books and studies on the topic, all of which consist of extensive surveys and interviews of people who have left, I’m struck by the common reasons that keep popping up. 

In my last post, I pointed out that millennials (18-29 year olds) are fleeing the church. Again, it’s not that I’ve based this on a few anecdotal stories. It’s not that I’ve read one or two surveys that have argued this. The evidence is overwhelming,

I want to talk about why millennials are fleeing the church in droves. But first, let’s circle back around to a question I raised at the end of a blog last week. Regarding discipleship, I said: “I wonder if we’ve elevated certain pet aspects of personal morality over communal and social action.”

Defining discipleship can be tricky. We say we want to “become more like Jesus” but we interpret Jesus through a cultural lens of American Christian values.

I just found out that the release date for my books about homosexuality ( adults and another for teens) got moved up from the original Jan 2016 date to Nov 2015.

Pastor Jeff Cook and I hosted a debate (or discussion) about homosexuality a month ago on my blog, and I’ve had several people ask for a “one stop” link for all the blogs. Therefore, I’ve included all the links to our discussion below, with a short description of what each post is about. 

What we debate is becoming less important in Christian circles than how we debate. To the ears of many, both in the church and out, Christians have collectively become clanging cymbals. 

The third annual Ecclesia and Ethics conference will be taking place over the next two weekends (March 14th and 21st) and this year’s theme is going to be a good one—“Human Sexuality and the Church.” Any conference with the words “sex” and “church” in its title is bound to gain some attendees.

The following blog is written by my friend, former student, and Eternity Bible College alumnus, Lance Hancock. Lance currently serves as the assistant to the Vice President (i.e. Me) for Eternity's Boise extension.

A few weeks ago, I posted a blog titled “The Dangers of Homeschooling” and I promised to follow up with a blog about the benefits of homeschooling. Sorry for the delay! I had planned to post the second blog a week.

I’ve never been a member of a house church, but a big part of me would like to be. I love the idea of a stripped down, no bells and whistles, authentic gathering of believers making disciples and living on mission together.

In my last post, I argued that the ever popular Christianese phrase “feeling called to…” is not a biblical concept. When used theologically, the word “call/calling” is almost exclusively used in terms of election unto salvation, not to authenticate a spiritual nudge we may have toward a particular ministry or vocation.

In my previous post, I talked about the revolutionary vision of philosopher Jamie Smith. I wanted to briefly follow up with some thoughts that capture some of the more provocative points in this book. 

As you may know, I’m writing a book on homosexuality, which should be published by this time next year. One of the things I’ve tried to do is read various blogs on homosexuality from a diverse perspectives

Last week, I blogged about the meaning of “church,” as I conversed with Don Miller (in a bloggy sort of way) over his disenchantment with Sunday services. I wanted to circle back around and tease out something I mentioned at the end of that post regarding diversity. 

I ended a previous blog ("What is Church?") by referring to Paul’s statements about the church in the book of Ephesians. I said: “[The] church is the fullness of God on earth, the very presence of the risen Lamb, according to Ephesians 1:22-23, 3:10, and 4:11-15.”

I read through Donald Miller’s reflection on church and his follow up response, and I must say that I had thoughts of both resonance and dissonance. In short, Miller confessed that he doesn’t connect with God through a traditional church service since he’s more of a kinetic learner than an audible one.