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Good Church through Good Order

IN ORDER TO SERVE: AN ECUMENICAL INTRODUCTION TO CHURCH POLITY LEO J. KOFFEMAN LIT VERLAG, 2014 264 PP. $41.46 Consider the dustup last March when World Vision decided to permit same-sex marriages among its employees. Immediately the charity was denounced by Franklin Graham and other evangelical leaders, who instructed supporters to punish World Vision by withdrawing their financial support. The dollars stopped. Two days later, the charity reversed its decision. Was this a case of Christian discipline? Well, yes, in…
Daniel Meeter
February 28, 2015
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Jesus Our Pioneer

It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. Hebrews 2:10 Pioneer. The word fairly leaps from the page here in Hebrews and arrests our attention. Jesus is called "the pioneer of our salvation" in chapter 2, and "the pioneer and perfecter of our faith" in chapter 12. Jesus is our "pioneer." Frankly, I'm not satisfied with that description of…
Roger Van Harn
November 3, 2014
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Two Letters on John Suk’s Essay

Dear Folks: Thank you for the thought-provoking essay on A Personal Relationship with Jesus? . Every time I confess I have a personal relationship with Jesus, I have been ignoring my conscience, which says otherwise. And I have drawn disapproving stares when I confess I do not get "goose pimples" whenever the Holy Spirit leads me. So now I am empowered to speak the truth! I am also empowered to widen my focus away from myself and toward God and…
Perspectives Journal
November 3, 2014
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No Merit and Due Credit

FEBRUARY 2006: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR To the Editors: Peter Bush's article in the November issue ("Stipend: A Theological Challenge to the Marketplace") puts forward an important truth: that the pay given to a pastor is a matter of grace, not works. Unfortunately, he suggests that this is only true of people who work for the church. But this truth applies to everyone. Calvinist theology traditionally argues that everything good we receive in this life comes to us by grace…
Perspectives Journal
November 3, 2014
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Tribute to Jan

JUNE/JULY 2007: AS WE SEE IT by the Editors Jan Ericson has served as the ever efficient and ever kind business manager of Perspectives since the fall of 2000. Unless you regularly peruse our credits page, you may be unfamiliar with her name. Simply put, Jan worked to ensure that this journal's mission continued on a sound footing and toward a bright future. As she now steps down after six-plus years in her post, it's fitting that we recognize her…
Perspectives Journal
November 3, 2014
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POETRY by Shari Wagner

DECEMBER 2008: POETRY by Shari Wagner The Prayers of Saint Meinrad Saint Meinrad Archabbey, Spencer County, IN For more than a century, prayers like flakes of snow have been falling. They drift across the hillside and melt on each station of the cross. They cover the graves where monks rest beneath Gregorian chants, touch the Romanesque spires of the abbey, soak into sandstone walls. Vespers sweep through a corridor, past photographs of young priests, to accumulate near St. Benedict with…
Shari Wagner
October 31, 2014
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POETRY by Jeff Grundy

NOVEMBER 2008: POETRY by Jeff Grundy Table The pen in my hand writes red, not quite blood. If I have a soul, it might be like this, thin, wet, smelling of copper and iron. Down on Riley Street, the Baptist workers have drained, cleaned, and sanitized every flooded basement. They accepted no money and didn't preach to anyone, knowing that every touch leaves a trace anyway. If every slide along the banisters of lust and gravity is both transient and…
Jeff Gundy
October 31, 2014
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Alien Justice

APRIL 2012: AS WE SEE IT by Jack R. Van Der Slik What may be loosely called American immigration policy confounds a number of distressing issues. It is difficult to judge the justice or injustice of the policy because it is an inconsistent patchwork of requirements. Even where substantive aspects of the policy are clear, its enforcement is inconsistent in ways that seem inequitable. Fair-minded citizens become dubious of governmental legitimacy when the consequences of enforcement produce irregularities of both…
Jack R. Van Der Slik
October 30, 2014
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Let’s Have (a) Sex (Talk)

MARCH 2012: REVIEW by Theresa Latini Sex and the Soul: Juggling Sexuality, Spirituality, Romance, and Religion on America's College Campuses Donna Freitas Oxford University Press, 2008 (paperback 2010) $16.95 335 pages. Editors' note: This month's review is the second in a set focusing on recent books we believe are essential reading for those who work with young people. In a forthcoming issue, we will also be reviewing Lost in Transition: The Dark Side of Emerging Adulthood by Christian Smith et…
October 30, 2014