Tag Archives: Church

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

Methodist Desire

Posted on October 2, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

A while back I mentioned the Methodist General Rules. Briefly summarized they say: First, Do no harm. Second, Do Good. Third, Attend to all the ordinances of God. Let’s consider the first rule in more detail. In context the full … Continue reading →

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Hauerwas vs. Glass Buildings

Posted on September 24, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

We continued our discussion of Stanley Hauerwas’s essay, “Discipleship as a Craft, Church as a Disciplined Community.” We picked up discovering his preference for brick buildings over glass buildings. Sure, he’s from a family of brick layers and he’s using … Continue reading →

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Hauerwas Lays Brick

Posted on September 24, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

Stanley Hauerwas came from a family of bricklayers. It’s natural then, that as he looks for a craft to analogize to discipleship, he settles on bricklaying OUR DISCUSSION of this section of his essay, “Discipleship as a Craft, Church as … Continue reading →

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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 →

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Hauerwas – Beyond “Friendly” Church

Posted on August 6, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

We continued working through Stanley Hauerwas’s essay, “Discipleship as a Craft, Church as Disciplined Community.” (Link to audio) We began with a quick return to the second paragraph which we’d started on last week: That the church has difficulty being … Continue reading →

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Discussion on Hauerwas on Church & Discipleship

Posted on July 23, 2025 by Richard Heyduck

Tomorrow is Stanley Hauerwas’s birthday. Coincidently, we began reading his 1991 essay, “Discipleship as a Craft, Church as Disciplined Community” today. This essay from The Christian Century can still be found online HERE. We got through most of page 1 … Continue reading →

Posted in Culture, Discipleship, Doctrine, Stanley Hauerwas, Theology, United Methodism | 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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