John Mark Hicks

Do we need “authority” for what we believe and practice in the kingdom of God? I think so.  It seems that Jesus was concerned about that very question when he raised it with his inquisitors regarding the baptism of John.  “By what authority” seems to be a legitimate question (Matthew 23:23-27).  [Perhaps someone might quibble […]

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 […]

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 […]

In 1996, 1998, and 2000 I conducted one day, Saturday, seminars for the Pennyrile Church of Christ in Madisonville, KY to which area ministers and members were invited to spend a day discussing “current” theological questions.  My friend Norris DeBerry was the minister for the church at the time. Those were encouraging, helpful discussions, I […]

In the recent past I read an amazingly insightful book by Tian Dayton entitled Heartwounds: The Impact of Unresolved Trauma and Grief on Relationships. Dayton is a leader in experiential therapy or psychodrama. While her work is not explicitly Christian, it is spiritually-based. It has been extremely helpful to me as it has opened my […]

Now available on my Academic Materials page is the lead article of the then new academic periodical the Stone Campbell Journal entitled “God’s Sensible Pledge: The Witness of the Spirit in the Early Baptismal Theology of Alexander Campbell”. The article suggests that Campbell regarded baptism as God’s sensible (empirical) pledge of assurance. It is an […]

I have added one of my earlier published pieces to the blog.  I presented this lecture at a Harding Graudate School of Religion forum in 1992. It addresses the relationship between justification and sanctification in the context of assurance.  You may access the lecture here. I plan to continuously add to my pages the rest […]

I often get requests for CDs of two seminar series that I have done for many churches.  The two most requested are “Anchors for the Soul” and “Come to the Table.”  They are both available on my Audios page.  “Anchors for the Soul” is my attempt to reflect on what we might say to those […]

I have recently created some pages where I can offer some previously published and unpublished materials for download.  I will occasionally comment on these to alert readers of their availability. At the moment there are several documents available on the Academic Materials page. One article is a presentation I made at the Christian Scholar’s Conference on a […]

Greg Taylor and I are honored that Down in the River to Pray was chosen for translation by some believers in Korea as one part of the 50th anniversary celebration of Korean Christian College. Come to the Table had been previously translated and I am grateful for its kind reception among Korean believers.  As one […]