An interesting aspect of my work these days is the opportunity to have conversations with people who hold different perspectives on the question of whether a covenanted same-sex relationship is an appropriate life choice for a disciple of Jesus. In the early years, most of my conversations were with Christians who held to a traditional…
Yesterday I had the opportunity to engage two very different audio accounts of a Christian person holding a traditional view of marriage speak about homosexuality. The first was the President of Fuller Seminary, Dr. Richard Mouw, speaking in an address to the Fuller community about these matters. The second, was Kirk Cameron, perhaps best known…
Some time ago, I spoke at a church about the concept of generous spaciousness. It was a relatively small church plant made up of people from many different walks of life. It was a group of people who were really trying to experience a sense of true community together. They talked about hard things together…
It is understandable that the descriptive term generous spaciousness creates some inherent challenges. Some people resonate with it and seem to have a gut sense of what it is all about. For others, it is a term that fails to bring clarity to an already complex conversation. Part of the thinking behind coining such a…
As some of you may be aware, five days have passed since I participated in a public conversation at the Gay Christian conference in Orlando. For those of you not aware, I was invited to be on a panel with two other former ex-gay leaders, John Smid formerly of Love in Action and Jeremy Marks,…
Maybe it was because I’d caught the bug my kids were sick with. Maybe it was due to being up very early all week with our new puppy. Maybe it was PMS. Not sure what it was, but as I made the drive to another suburb of the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) to preach, my…
Back in May I had the opportunity to speak at a conference called Presentensions. The two main speakers were David Fitch and Phyllis Tickle. I spoke abit about Tickle in my post on authority here. I noticed, however, that David Fitch raised some questions after that particular event in his blog post entitled: Questioning The…
As some of you know, I started work on my doctorate degree last week. I’ve always loved to learn and I am excited after 12 years to be back in school. It is a three – four year program of studies that are meant to coincide with continuing on in your ministry position. So while…
It is not really that surprising to read an article in the New York Times about tensions on Christian college campuses in relating and responding to their lgbt students. The article highlights a few American schools, most of whom I’m unfamiliar with. But given my relationship with a number of colleges, I well know the…
Language in the conversation at the intersection of faith and sexuality can be particularly challenging. The challenge comes for a few reasons. First of all, the language seems to change rapidly and it can be hard to keep up. Secondly, language means different things to different people – so what works in one context can…