A Forgotten Fact about the Earliest Christian Movement
The lovable Disney film Moana, tells the story of a young girl who lives on a Polynesian island and is the daughter of the chief. Like many fathers, the chief is overly protective of his daughter, and also of the people he rules.
As a result, the people of Moana’s village are in a bit of a rut. They are rather uninspired and somewhat in-grown, not sure of their purpose or destiny. And Moana feels the same unrest. The core of the movie catalogs her struggle to discover her identity and calling.
But here’s the key. While she is curious about what her future should be, her breakthrough comes … Continue reading...
RTS Charlotte 2022 Year in Review
Well, it’s New Year’s Eve. It’s the time of the year to be inundated with “Best of” stories and “Year in Review” segments, dutifully cataloging everything that happened in pop culture or politics.
But, what if a “Year in Review” was about more than celebrities or sports teams? What if we did a year in review about what God had done in the prior year? Or, more to the point, about how God has been at work in our ministries this year?
Of course, God has been at work in countless ways around the globe this year, most of which I could never know about. But, I can speak to … Continue reading...
A Curious Clue about the Origins of the New Testament Canon
Although most discussions about the development of the canon focus on the patristic period (second century and later), there is much canonical gold yet to mine from the pages of the New Testament itself. Unfortunately, this step is often skipped.
There are a number of possible reasons for why it is skipped. But perhaps most people just assume that the whole idea of a “canon” is a late development anyway, and thus we wouldn’t expect to find anything about it in the New Testament books themselves.
Aside from the fact that such a position already presupposes an entire canonical “worldview” known as the extrinsic model (for my critique of this … Continue reading...
“Bully Pulpit” Wins Book of the Year
The Gospel Coalition released it’s annual Book of the Year Awards today, and I was so pleased to see that my new book, Bully Pulpit, won Book of the Year for the ministry category.
The reviewers wrote: “Michael Kruger’s Bully Pulpit confronts this widespread problem with the beauty and transforming power of the gospel . . . He succeeds in creating a work that will be a change agent in our time and should live well beyond it.”
[UPDATE: I recently learned that Bully Pulpit was also one of the winners for the Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Book of the Year Awards, and a runner-up for the … Continue reading...
The Deconversion of Saruman: Five Lessons to Learn
There’s been a lot of chatter the last couple years over “de-conversion” stories. Of course, there is the story of well-known pastor and author Joshua Harris, as well as the Youtube comedians Rhett and Link.
I’ve written on this phenomenon myself in a number of places, including my recent book, The 10 Commandments of Progressive Christianity, as well as my my article, “The Power of De-conversion Stories: How Jen Hatmaker is Trying to Change Minds about the Bible.”
So, what exactly is de-conversion? In short, it’s when a person who is deeply committed to the Christian faith ends up leaving the Christian faith and abandoning their prior … Continue reading...