BillyCalderwood.com

Too many church planters plant in their heads and not in their communities. This happens in two ways. Some are Bible-only types, and others are model-inspired - and both make the same mistake of ignoring their culture.
It is easy to develop a solid, theological grasp on the essential components of the church, and the nature [...]

I don’t normally give a second thought to words that come out of the mouths of shock tactic junkies and alarmists conservative or liberal.  However, this nugget from Glenn Beck and the response below by the Rev. James Martin are too interesting to pass by.  I believe that Beck’s perspective is certainly not isolated. The [...]

The true preaching of the gospel of salvation by grace alone always leads to the possibility of this charge being brought against it. There is no better test as to whether a man is really preaching the New Testament gospel of salvation than this, that some people might misunderstand it and misinterpret it to mean [...]

FRONTLINE/WORLD . Dispatches . iWitness . Swaziland: The King and the Web | PBS
Click for video…

Hi Everyone! Today is the 20th anniversary of World Aids Day. Having recently returned from Southern Africa, I have witnessed firsthand the devastation caused by this disease and have been totally inspired by the work that is being done to fight it! Don’t simply wear your red ribbon today - take action [...]

Thanksgiving morning I picked up a newspaper and was absolutely overwhelmed by the number of “black friday” shopping ads it contained. It got me thinking… What if the day after Thanksgiving became the biggest giving day of the year, not the biggest shopping day of the year. So, I started a facebook [...]

“In my classes I liken theology to basketball (no doubt a vestige of my doctoral education at Duke.) It is not merely a subject to be studied “objectively,” but a practical discipline. To study Christian theology adequately is to practice Christian theology, as one practices basketball whether as a player, coach, referee, commentator, fan, or [...]

Energy, Consumerism, and the Economic Crisis
…we have to face up to the reality that we are ourselves major culprits in the financial fiasco that has befallen the nation and the world.
Seduced by brilliant advertising, we are a people who have bought into affluent lifestyles that have us living beyond our means. We spend almost all [...]

Those of you who subscribe to this blog’s feed may have experienced a couple of glitches lately. I have updated the blog’s feed with feedburner. The new feed is: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SwimmingInTheDivineChaos

To my regular readers…
Sorry for the two week blog silence. Enjoyed some quiet time away with family and friends and very minimal electronic interaction. Back again!

Following is a real life conversation that took place between me and my somewhat culturally insulated albeit very sweet (very southern) Grandmother when I was in tenth grade:
Grandma: You know, when I was a girl, we used to get the freshest fruit from this wonder niggar man who used to come by the house…
Me [...]

Globalizing Theology: Belief and Practice in an Era of World Christianity
Craig Ott and Harold A. Netland, editors
Baker Academic
Globalizing Theology

“In our lifetimes, the centuries-long North Atlantic captivity of the church is drawing to an end,” says Philip Jenkins, historian at Pennsylvania State University. If Jenkins is correct, then this volume has come none too soon. Christianity [...]

Scot Mckight blogs about Greely and Houts “The truth about Conservative Christians.” Among other insights revealed is this one:

“family income and economic issues are far more significant than moral values for the trends in both voting and party identification” 48. “The Republicans’ real base is not the the religious right but the affluent” [...]

In an interview posted at Out of Ur, Phylis Tickle offers her take onThe Future of the Emerging Church Among other things, she suggests that:
American religion has four, pretty much equally divided, quadrants. Evangelicalism is one of them, charismatic Pentecostalism is another, the old mainline or social justice Christians is a third quadrant, and [...]

The other day I did something about which my wife would later say: “That was amazing, I almost cried.” I’m not kidding here guys. Want to know my secret? Here it is: Toward the end of a busy week for both of us, (work, taxiing kids around, meetings, and so on) I [...]

I really wish I had been doing a better job of tagging my posts from the beginning. I’m happy that I found Ultimate Tag Warrior 3 plugin for Wordpress that makes it much easier. BBC NEWS | Technology | Tagging ‘takes off for web users’
As more and more people put their own content [...]