Category Archives: Culture

Why Churches Are Infatuated with Metrics

Posted on May 18, 2023 by Richard Heyduck

Another pastor asked me today why the church loves “measurability” so much. The question got me to thinking. My first thought turned to Jerry Muller’s book, The Tyranny of Metrics. (If you like other formats, you can listen to Russ … Continue reading →

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Love, Jesus, and the Bible

Posted on August 17, 2022 by Richard Heyduck

I saw this cartoon on Facebook this morning and found it stimulating. First thought: Who are the people in the picture? Reading left to right, as we do in English, we see five people who are dressed in modern western … Continue reading →

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A Problem of Truth

Posted on April 14, 2022 by Richard Heyduck

You’ve probably heard the claim, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” You may not have heard that claim in its context. In John 8:31-32 Jesus is speaking to some people who “had believed him” … Continue reading →

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United Methodist Congregationalism

Posted on February 25, 2020 by Richard Heyduck

It has been said vigorously and often that United Methodist polity is NOT congregationalist. We have congregations, but our polity is connectional. Congregationalism is the claim that churches are independent, self-defined, self-determined, and self-led before they are connected to other … Continue reading →

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Worship and Culture

Posted on October 30, 2019 by Richard Heyduck

Robert Jenson wrote: “If you can teach previously clueless inquirers to participate in some ‘service of worship’ in a week or two, the service is merely thereby unmasked as dubiously Christian. The baptized face a new culture of the church … Continue reading →

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Tremper Longman – Confronting Old Testament Controversies

Posted on May 1, 2019 by Richard Heyduck

Note: A free copy of this book was sent to me by Baker Book Bloggers for purposes of review. It doesn’t take more than a few minutes with the Old Testament to discover that it comes from a cultural perspective … Continue reading →

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Review: Faith for this Moment

Posted on October 29, 2018 by Richard Heyduck

If you have access to this review, you know we live in a highly polarized culture. One the one hand, our political polarization has been on display during the past week as a miscreant from Florida sent mail bombs to … Continue reading →

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United Methodist Convictions

Posted on April 24, 2018 by Richard Heyduck

In their book Convictions: Defusing Religious Relativism, James Wm. McClendon, Jr., and James M. Smith work from this definition: “A conviction… means a persistent belief such that if X (a person or community) has a conviction it will not easily be … Continue reading →

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The Downside of Church Success

Posted on August 2, 2017 by Richard Heyduck

There is a long-standing tendency to reduce the Christian faith to ethics. In Christology this shows up when we see Jesus primarily as teacher. As a teacher – in fact The Great Teacher – Jesus gives us the information we need … Continue reading →

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What Are They Supposed to Think?

Posted on June 17, 2017 by Richard Heyduck

What are my black friends supposed to think, with yesterday’s acquittal of Officer Yanez in the shooting of Philando Castile? Blacks may (in theory) have second amendment rights, but if they exercise them they’re more likely to receive an instant … Continue reading →

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