It’s confession time: I began my sermon tonight with “”a joke””. You know, feed-line, punch-line, wait for response, polite church laughter, tenuous link to sermon.
ugggh. I think I need a shower.
I post this quotation as penance. Here’s Barth warning us all away from such ‘plain heresy’:
The theological damage of sermon introductions is in any event [...]
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Posted in Barth, prayer, tagged Barth, prayer on 20 March, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Nothing transforms my prayer life like quoting Matthew 18:3 to myself:
Unless you change and become like little children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Here’s Barth on coming to our Father in heaven as child-like beginners:
In invocation of God the Father everything depends on whether or not it is done in sheer need (not [...]
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Posted in Barth, Doctrine of God, church, evangelism, mission, trinity, tagged Barth, church, Doctrine of God, evangelism, mission, trinity on 22 January, 2009 | 4 Comments »
When Karl Barth addressed the Brandenburg Missionary Conference in 1932 he introduced a missiological perspective which has determined the shape of mission theology in every part of the Church.
“Must not even the most faithful missionary, the most convinced friend of missions, have reason to reflect that the term missio was in the ancient Church [...]
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Rediscovered this old quote from Barth’s Homiletics:
“The theological damage of sermon introductions is in any event incredibly extensive… For what do they really involve at root? Nothing other than the search for a point of contact, for an analogue in us which can be a point of entry for the Word of God. It is [...]
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“One can never say of a single part of the narrative, doctrine and proclamation of the New Testament, that in itself it is original or important or the object of the witness intended. Neither the ethics of the Sermon on the Mount nor the eschatology of Mk 13 and parallels, nor the healing of the [...]
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Posted in Barth, apologetics, tagged apologetics, Barth on 25 February, 2008 | 5 Comments »
Some nice moments from Barth against apologetics
“Knowledge of revelation… begins with certitude. Either God has spoken or He has not spoken. If He has spoken, He has done so in such a manner that it is impossible not to heed Him. Among others, the question of His existence and nature are then decided and can [...]
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Posted in Barth, bible, preaching, tagged Barth, bible, preaching on 7 February, 2008 | 4 Comments »
For Barth the three-fold Word – Christ, Scripture and Proclamation – means that preaching should always be Scriptural and always witness to Christ. Here he makes it clear that christo-centrism is not something the preacher (or the biblical theologian) bestows on the Bible. Rather, the Bible is already and inherently witness to Christ:
“The Bible says all sorts [...]
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Posted in Barth, preaching, tagged Barth, preaching on 6 February, 2008 | 8 Comments »
That’s what Heinrich Bullinger asserted in the Second Helvetic Confession. And he’s not alone. Check out Luther:
“Tis a right excellent thing, that every honest pastor’s and preacher’s mouth is Christ’s mouth, and his word and forgiveness is Christ’s word and forgiveness… For the office is not the pastor’s or preacher’s but God’s; and the Word [...]
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Posted in Barth, tagged Barth, videos on 6 January, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Hello all,
I’m going on a blog-fast for the next week. Feel free to comment on anything but I will resist replying – for a bit anyway.
In the meantime enjoy this! Barth 101:
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Posted in Barth, Calvin, Spurgeon, assurance, election, tagged assurance, Barth, Calvin, election, Spurgeon on 4 January, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Over at White to Harvest there are some very stimulating discussions of election and assurance going on – see here and the comments here. But just to stick up for the reformed tradition, here are (very selective!) quotations from three of the greats. Not to say that these are consistently followed by each theologian or their [...]
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Posted in Barth, Doctrine of God, evangelism, mission, social action, tagged Barth, Doctrine of God, evangelism, mission, social action on 12 December, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
A little detour on Barth…
Last century, Karl Barth was key in re-emphasizing mission as the outflow of the life of God. At the Brandenburg Missionary Conference in 1932 he said:
“Must not even the most faithful missionary, the most convinced friend of missions, have reason to reflect that the term missio was in the ancient Church [...]
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