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  • the Spirit is With Us

    Sheena McFerran on August 31 2010

    He is God, but not as “concrete” as a man or even as a “god.” He’s hard to explain. But we see in scripture that He does have a mind, a will, and experience emotions. All traits which strengthen my understanding of the Holy Spirit as a distinct person of the Trinity.

    Two of the three times I’ve been to Basileia, I was overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit rushing in me, as well as around the congregation. It feels like a hot, burning rain. Like I should be soaked head to toe. It almost knocks the wind out of me. 

    God is surely stirring in the Basileia community. The only other time or place I have ever felt the Spirit like this was on a mission trip with to India with RockHarbor. In this instance, we were praying and saw people healed.

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  • Dreams are Never Free

    Geoff Talbot on August 10 2010

    Creativity and poverty often hold hands and walk down Hollywood Boulevard. Many a creative soul has drifted down those paved sidewalks dreaming of their own star, but struggling to pay the rent. Some say that dreams are free. And while dreaming doesn’t cost you a dime, chasing them can cost you everything.

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  • the Process of Relationship

    Holly Pinkham on August 05 2010
    Relationship is a process. 
     
    Trusting Christ and coming into relationship with him takes time. Friendship and trust between individuals is equally as challenging and requires just as much patience. When it comes to ministry, most of us want the quick fix. An immediate response to an altar call. A change of heart when someone hears about Jesus' love for the first time. Seeing someone so lost turn from their old ways and change. And not that the Holy Spirit can't create immediate change or display a miracle in an instance - he can and does. But more often than not, it seems that God takes his time with us, and wants us to do the same with others.

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  • the road to intimacy

    Andrew Kolvet on July 31 2010

    The Road to IntimacyHow many times have those  in and around church circles heard the regrettably axiomatic expression, "Christians can be so judgmental"?  If you're anything like me, you have either heard it on repeat for years, or felt it in a very personal way. Often followed by bouts of disabling guilt and self-imposed isolation. 

    The words of Jesus come rushing to mind  (and almost always in the classic and weighty King James version for effect), "Judge not lest ye be so judged!"  Thundering tones from the author of love indeed.  Yet despite this clear mandate, almost all of us are guilty of doing the same to ourselves and to each other at various points along the path of our Christian journeys.

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  • Women in Ministry: Theological Foundations

    Don Williams on July 30 2010

    LibWomen in Ministryeration movements with their attack on traditional, patriarchal society, have provoked a crisis in Western culture.  This, in turn, has provoked a crisis in the church.  How has the church responded?

    First, there are those who are committed to “hold the line.”  For them, the fundamentals of truth and God’s order are at stake in this issue.  Roman Catholic doctrine teaches that the image of Christ, born by the clergy, demands a male priesthood and male government.  Many traditional evangelicals teach that the hierarchical order in the Trinity demands hierarchical order in the church, including male dominance and female submission.  In maintaining traditional gender roles, the church is maintaining the whole ontological order of reality, grounded in God himself.  Surrender here and we will surrender elsewhere, moving from order to chaos.

    Second, there are those who are committed to “redraw the line.”  They argue that the Bible allows (or forces) us to reevaluate the traditional views of male headship, female leadership, roles, and authority in the church.  For liberal Protestants it is mandatory to surrender male dominance.  Only in this way will the church survive the cultural shift, and affirm the full value of woman in ministry.  Oppression ends with equal access to ecclesiastical power.  For contemporary evangelicals, the cultural changes force us to reexamine the biblical basis for male dominance.  In doing this, biblical revelation is much less certain than traditionalists hold.  Fresh exegesis opens us to the opportunity for fully embracing women in leadership on an egalitarian (or better, eschatological) model.

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