Parchment & Pen Blog

Last week I met with an old friend of mine who I had heard was a “swinger.” For those of you who don’t know, swinging is when both partners in a committed relationship agree to have a sexually open relationship. This guy was married and came in to talk to me about – you guessed it – [...]

The other day, my daughter did the dishes without me asking. Wait…there’s more. Get this: it is not even her job to do the dishes anymore! It is my other daughter’s job. Those of you who are parents know what I am talking about. You know, the frustrations of trying to get your kids to [...]

(Lisa Robinson) As Halloween approaches, you can bet the discussions will increase amongst Christians, as they normally do.  One faction promotes participation while the other faction wants all Christians to see the horrors of Halloween and why they should not participate.  But that is neither here nor there because I believe it is a matter [...]

It is no secret that our culture today has been/is undergoing a massive paradigm shift with regards to the way people come to know truth. The atmosphere of the intellectual landscape has changed. For many, confidence, certainty, and dogmatism have been replaced with doubt, skepticism, and agnosticism. All truth claims are held in high suspicion. [...]

Dear friends, This is written to those of you who I know and are without Christ. By that I mean you have never fallen on your face before Christ and asked for forgiveness. Many of you are friends—close friends—whom I have talked to about Christ, but you are unconvinced. I would love to be able to push a [...]

There is no special nobility for believing in God. Most people at their best, using their common sense, believe in God. In fact, conservatively speaking, ninety-percent of all societies and peoples have all believed in a God of some sort. In our Christian dominated society, I rarely come across a true atheist. It is quite a novelty. [...]

(Lisa Robinson) Every Sunday morning I have the privilege of serving a small group of very enthusiastic believers who are relatively new to the faith.  We’ve been plodding through the book of John and this morning, our discussion was John 4:1-45.  The number of sermons or other messages on Jesus’ confrontation with the woman at [...]

Jeffrey Bingham, the chair of the theology department at Dallas Theological Seminary, has a phrase he uses when people advocate something that is not a part of the historic Christian faith: “It’s something, but it’s not Christian.” More and more lately I have been asking this question: When do we, in our zeal to remove [...]

Credo Clips: Theology in three minutes.

Editors Note: In addition to all of our online ministries and curriculum we spend time every day answering questions through email. A man contacted our ministry last week saying his female friend was worried wondering if she’s a part of the elect. I thought it beneficial to post the response to these two people: My [...]

Last night I went to pick  Zach, my three-year-old, up from his class at church. When I dropped him off, the sign-in sheet asked, “Any special instructions?” I hesitated, then left it blank. I suppose that this was a mistake. When I went to get him, I lifted him up and sat him on my hip only [...]

The following horse and water illustration that follows is taken from Millard Erickson’s book Postmodernizing the Faith. I use this and expand on it. How should Christians engage a post-Christian, post-evangelical world, suspicious generation of people? How do we engage postmoderns? Follow me here through this “Leading a horse to water” illustration. Here are the [...]