Worth Your Time 1.26.12

The State of the Union and the State of the Pulpit from Erik Raymond

If you are a pastor, keep preaching. And keep expecting people to listen. But, please, please, please, could you make sure that the sermon is actually in you before you give it? Make sure it moves you. Have convictions, be persuasive, get after it. What a shame it would be if the president was more thoughtful, diligent, and committed in his presentation to the people of the country than we are to our congregations before God?

Women in Ministry and 1 Timothy 2:12 from Denny Burk

1 Timothy 2:12 is the most debated verse in the intra-evangelical debate about women in ministry, and its interpretation has been highly contested over the last 20 to 30 years. That is why it was not small matter when the translators decided to revise their rendering of this text in the 2011 edition of the NIV.

Open Letter to T.D. Jakes from Brandon Smith

I love and affirm you as a brother in Christ. There will be many people who parse your words from today and still doubt you. Sadly, people believe that you a) owe them an explanation satisfactory only to them, and b) that you’re probably still a heretic even though they can’t name a theological reason why. I don’t agree hardly at all with your methodology or even sometimes your exegesis, but I know this – you are the real deal and I can learn a lot about loving Jesus and loving others from you.

T.D. Jakes, The Trinity, and Truth from Ed Stetzer

Jakes has explicitly said he moved away from a non-trinitiarian position to a Trinitarian one as he studied the scriptures. You might want more, and I would have loved to hear several other theological issues addressed. Regardless, to be fair, you have to at least acknowledge a shift on views of the Trinity– and that is a move in the right direction.