First, he says, make sure your church is clean.

“If the overall atmosphere is not generally clean and adequately maintained, a statement is being made about your congregation,” Driscoll says.

Yes.  I am glad that Jesus sent his disciples out two by two to look for clean places of worship.

“I am sending you out,” Jesus says. “To find a clean place for my people to meet.  Make sure if dirty people come in, the homeless and the poor, that they clean up first and put on clothes.  Otherwise, what do you think is being said about my church?”

Second, Driscoll says, it needs to be accessible (easy to find), and third, it needs to be a place you can put signs so that people can find you.

Yes. I am glad that Jesus sent his disciples to find the most accessible and easy to find places so that Jesus could preach to as many people as possible.

“Find me an accessible location that is easy to find,” Jesus says.  “So that I can place signs with my picture on them, and they will be seen by the maximum amount of passerby.  Too bad we don’t live in an age of billboards.”

“What are billboards?” Peter asks.

“Oh, if only you Peter,” Jesus smiled. “If only you knew.”

—————————–

I am sick of people trying to sell a clean accessible Jesus.  Please somebody stop the madness!

Neoliberalism as Water Balloon from Tim McCaskell on Vimeo.

(HT: David Horstkoetter)

Sermon on Hell
Nathan gives a sermon on Hell that is worth reading. He gives a good survey of the history of Hell for the layperson. I disagreed with him on one point, but it was a rather minor wording issue (we probably actually agree on that issue too if we talked about it).

Was a High Christology Only a Late Development?
Was the worship of Jesus (as God) a late development or was it practiced by the earliest Christians? There are those that argue that the evolution of Jesus as God came only as Christianity was paganized, and could not have been part of the prevailing Judaic monotheist thought at that time. Over at Premier Christian Radio, two scholars debate the issue. James Crossley argues for an early development and Richard Bauckham argues against it (HT: Euangelion).  You can listen to it below:

The Sacrament of Baptism, Communion, and FACEBOOK Religious Status???
(HT:Subversive Influence)

Papelbon Got Owned
I more a Dodger fan than Angel fan, but it is always fun to watch Papelbon get owned. He had 27 straight innings of no RBIs in the postseason, and today gave up three for the loss to the Angels.

The Beatitudes

(HT: Father Stephen)