Old JMH Articles: 1980s

March 5, 2009

Some are worthwhile, some are not; or, at least, some are more worthwhile than others.  🙂  You will have to be the judge. “Ministerial Education,” Magnolia Messenger 11.6 (June 1989), 11, 14. Building on J. W. McGarvey’s article on ministerial education (Lard’s Quarterly, 1865, 239-250), the piece argues for a liberal arts education plus additional […]


Jesus, the Unlikely Apprentice IV

February 18, 2009

Living in Community While Jesus apprenticed in his humanity as he was discipled by his Father, he did not live in isolation from others. Quite the contrary, he travelled throughout Palestine with his twelve apostles and a group of supportive women (Luke 8:1-3). Jesus mentored them, taught them, and prayed with them (Mark 4:34; Luke […]


I am a Patternist; Yes, Really!

February 12, 2009

Jesus is the logos (word) of God; he is our pattern, the speech of God. His life is the word of God. He embodies all that God desires. Disciples of Jesus follow Jesus. They follow him into the water, and are thereby baptized. They follow him into the wilderness, and thus seek solitude with God […]


Reverse the Curse V – The Ministry of Jesus (Luke)

September 2, 2008

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18-19). “Today this scripture is […]


Women Serving God

July 11, 2008

In the first half of 2004, the Woodmont Hills Church of Christ (Family of God) in Nashville, TN, pursued a congregational-wide study entitled “Women Serving God.” There were some preliminaries in the Fall of 2003, but the main focus was the Spring of 2004. This involved many different venues–sermons, Bible classes (Sunday and Wednesday), small groups, […]


Theological Hermeneutics VIII — Christ Event as Hermeneutical Lens Illustrated

July 2, 2008

I offer this methodology for thinking theologically about any particular theme or communal practice in Scripture. What I offer, however, is neither comprehensive nor complete but a theological trajectory. I hope to get more practical with this in the next few posts. A Basic Methodology First, and foundationally, the Christ Event (incarnation, ministry, death, resurrection […]


Theological Hermeneutics VII – The Christ Event

July 1, 2008

After a “deserved” break (for you as well as me), I now return to my series on “theological hermeneutics.” (For the previous articles, see the heading “Hermeneutics” on my Serial Index page.) My last few posts in this series emphasized the redemptive-historical character of Scripture as a function of the narrative plot of God’s story. In […]


Transforming Encounters of the Sacramental Kind

June 29, 2008

On February 2 of this year I conducted a one day seminar at the North Davis Church of Christ in Arlington, Texas. They had invited me to prepare some materials for a congregational-wide study of Baptism, the Lord’s Supper and Assembly based on my three books (Come to the Table, Down in the River to […]


Theological Hermeneutics IV — Exploring the Story

June 14, 2008

At this point I am tempted to reproduce an earlier post entitled An Increasingly Common Analogy.  Instead, I will simply ask those who are interested to read it. In summary, we are participating in a theodrama (to use Vanhoozer’s term in his Drama of Doctrine).  On the analogy of a five act (or six, depending […]