Coffeehouse Theology

On a whim and a conviction, I began a little experiment mid-summer with teaching a sixteen-week course in theology for our students. While our friends in Rome have advocated systematic teaching of doctrine for centuries, we Protestant types, true to our nature, have tried to do things our own way. That’s great when people are intentional, but dangerous when we are not. So we’ve ended up with people really trying to hande snakes, a few naked baptisms, and a little controversy called Landmarkism that claimed Baptists are the only ones getting into the pearly gates, to give a few extreme examples. Point is, if we don’t know what we believe, then we can’t live truly, correctly, rightly. And people, especially Americans, will handle the Bible in all kinds of eccentric and incorrect and self-serving ways if we don’t. So I wanted to empower our students with some solid theology, but do it in a non-threatening, discussion-oriented environment...and I stole the name from a book by the same title by a fellow Nashvillian named Jim Thomas. The results? 3:30 on Thursday afternoon has become one of my favorite hours of the week. George Frazier and It’s a Grind has been a more than gracious host. Our students? They have amazed me with their honest questions, their hilarious and stubborn attempts to find analogies for the three-in-oneness of God, and their hunger and thirst for more. Props to Traci Creason, our sole ninth-grader, who I think has actually looked up every verse I’ve ever put on the discussion guide. So I planned to end this thing after week sixteen, but the students won’t let me. And I don’t really want to, either.
On a related note, in conversation on our date night celebrating our eighth anniversary Tanya asked me what I would see myself doing if I wasn’t a pastor. I landed on teaching in a small university or college setting, because I love pouring my life into students who are hungry for truth, hope, and all things God. So much love to my Coffeehouse Theology Crew – soli deo gloria!

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For the longest time, I felt like the biggest blog-loser in history, because, in a little over a year, no one, ever had left a comment on my blog. My natural deduction was that meant no one was reading it at all, or worse yet, it was so uninspiring that no one bothered to even comment…ever. Then Scott “Good Game” Drennen e-mails from the Virgin Islands to tell me that my posts from our Chicago Mission Journey connected with him, flooding him with memories of meaningful high school mission trips past, and prompting him to “sign up” as the first volunteer for next year’s trip. So this blog has now served at least some small purpose in history…and now I have to figure out why the dang comment button is broken (help, Seth)!

3 Nights in August...in September

"The rivalry between the Cubs and the Cardinals is probably the oldest and perhaps the best in baseball, no matter how the Red Sox and the Yankees spit and spite at each other. That's a tabloid-fueled soap opera about money and ego and sound bites. That's a pair of bratty high-priced supermodels trying to trip each other in their stilettos on the runway. But the Cubs-Cards epic is about roots and geography and territorial rights. It's entwined in the Midwestern blood and therefore refreshing and honest and even heroic."
- Buzz Bissinger, 3 Nights in August

In the 5th Inning, it's Cards 3, Cubs 0. The Redbirds Magic Number is 2. How sweet it is...