Category Archives: Ecclesiology

A People Who Are His Very Own

Posted on October 8, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

I’ve spent quite a bit of teaching time on the scriptural picture of God wanting a people who are his very, a “chosen people” who will be his primary agents to extend his blessings to everyone else. This was the … Continue reading →

Posted in Bible, Discipleship, Ecclesiology, Preaching, Salvation, Stanley Hauerwas, Teaching | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A non-Hauerwasian Interlude

Posted on September 10, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

Last week we looked at this paragraph in Stanley Hauerwas’s essay, “Discipleship as a Craft, Church as a Disciplined Community.” For example, one of the great problems facing liberal and conservative churches alike is that their membership has been schooled … Continue reading →

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Hauerwas – “What Do You Mean ‘We’ Kemosabe?”

Posted on September 10, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

The essay we’ve been looking at, “Discipleship as a Craft, Church as a Disciplined Community,” was written with a particular audience in mind. He writes, In this respect it is interesting to note how we—that is, those of us in … Continue reading →

Posted in Bible, Christianity, Discipleship, Discipline, Doctrine, Ecclesiology, Gospel, Jesus, Liberalism, Stanley Hauerwas, Theology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Hauerwas – Minds Worth Making Up?

Posted on September 9, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

We continued our discussion of Stanley Hauerwas’s essay from The Christian Century (1991), “Discipleship as a Craft, Church as Disciplined Community.” We spent most the time talking about our culture’s infatuation with autonomous individualism and how that infatuation shows up … Continue reading →

Posted in Bible, Christianity, Culture, Discipleship, Ecclesiology, Stanley Hauerwas, Theology | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Hauerwas on the Church “Standing against the powers we confront”

Posted on July 30, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

We continued working through Stanley Hauerwas’s essay, “Discipleship as a Craft, Church as a Disciplined Community.” You can listen to the audio HERE. Hauerwas is talking about the church of our age (he’s writing in 1991, but it seems still … Continue reading →

Posted in Bible, Christianity, Discipleship, Ecclesiology, Stanley Hauerwas, Violence | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

It’s Not Just Us

Posted on June 10, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

Or, The Problem of Catholicity The work of the Spirit to make us one body in Christ works against the nationalisms, ethnocentrisms, and individualism that keep us penned up and comfortable with our own tribes.

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You Gotta Have a Door! But…

Posted on June 2, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

The main text for this message is John 10:7-18 7 Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. 9 I am the gate; … Continue reading →

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Study of Reversed Thunder

Posted on July 5, 2023 by Richard Heyduck

We’re doing a study of Eugene Peterson’s book on Revelation, Reversed Thunder. Below you can find the audio of our meetings:

Posted in Bible, Books, Discipleship, Doctrine, Ecclesiology, Salvation, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

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 →

Posted in Culture, Discipleship, Ecclesiology, Leadership | Leave a comment

Positive and Negative in United Methodism

Posted on September 9, 2022 by Richard Heyduck

Since reading Alasdair MacIntyre’s Whose Justice? Which Rationality? thirty-something years ago, I’ve found great value in the definition of a tradition that he he offers there (p. 12). A tradition is an argument extended through time in which certain fundamental … Continue reading →

Posted in Alasdair MacIntyre, Discipline, Diversity, Doctrine, Ecclesiology, Theology, Tradition, United Methodism | Leave a comment