Parchment & Pen Blog

(Lisa Robinson) In my first semester of seminary, I had to read Surprised by the Voice of God  by Jack Deere to complete a theological method paper for my Intro to Theology class.  I’ve been re-reading it in preparation to grade the same assignment. If you are not familiar with the book, Deere writes about [...]

Wonderful news. My back has been healed. Wait. Shelf that. I need to back up. The moment I proclaim victory over something is the moment it usually comes back with a ferocious force and undermines (to say the least) my victory procession. I remember when I prayed for my sister Angie when she was fighting [...]

Michael, Thanks for your careful approach to this question. I appreciate your desire to properly honor our common heroes of the faith throughout these past 2,000 years of church history. But I have to say that I remain utterly unmoved and altogether unconvinced by your appeal to this argument from the life of the church [...]

The following is part of a discussion (not debate) between two friends, Sam Storms and C. Michael Patton, about the charismatic gifts of the Spirit. Sam is a Charismatic. Michael is not. If you have come in late, you can access the entire series here. Sam, Thanks much for detailing your argument in such a [...]

(by Lisa Robinson) I recall my Trinitarianism class in Spring 2009, and when we got to the discussion regarding the Holy Spirit, my professor made some comical remark about how we tend to neglect the Holy Spirit in discussions involving trinitarianism.  “Poor Holy Spirit”, he said.  While the remark garnered some chuckles from the class, [...]

(by Lisa Robinson) It has been five years since my ‘conversion’ from being a somewhat radical charismatic to embrace a soft-cessationist position…I think.  The reason I say put that qualifier on there is because I have had to wrestle through not only some doctrinal dilemmas concerning the cessation of gifts, but also some more pragmatic [...]

(by Lisa Robinson) A while ago, I addressed in A Theology of More a mentality that has a continual quest for greater external manifestations that demonstrates that God is active in the lives of his people, both individually and corporately.  The quest is usually part and parcel of alignment with  Charismatic/Pentecostal theology and the belief [...]

Recently, I have been confronted with some rather significant decisions.  As one who is committed to Christ as Lord and Savior, naturally these are things I have brought to God in prayer, looking for his will and guidance.  At the same time, I have had to think through ramifications of varying options and scenarios and [...]