What if the reason for the incarnation is corrected vision? God’s people have a habit of getting off track in their understanding of who God is and what God cares about. Christ enters the equation and corrects our picture of who God is and what it looks like to follow Him.

Love is for all. It really is that simple but the church has complicated the concept by trying to weaving extras into the definition of something pure. In response culture has done the same. In defining the idea of love we all add extras into the definition to make sure that it’s clear where we stand on certain political and cultural issues of our day. But what is Christ’s actual call?

Interestingly, in the western world that we know, we find ourselves troubled by certain theological problems that the eastern world never encountered. One of those problems is the atonement theory called penal substitutionary atonement.

Transactions are simple. If I know what good…what product…what action…will earn me your favor…your love…then I know what to repeat.

The young man in our story is prepared for a transaction. He is offering his apology, his pride, his brokenness in return for being a servant. He’s probably thinking – I was tested and I failed.

In the 1990s we had the great boom of church planting. Mega-churches around the country gave us their greatest hits and programs to teach all of the littlest churches how to become mini-mega-churches. Was it a success? A failure? What happened to those church plants? Those programs? And what’s the future of the church now?

Deconstruction is a really popular term among Christians and ex-Christians but it’s also taking a lot of heat in the Evangelical world. Celebrity pastors are accusing people of deconstructing because it’s cool or because they want street credibility. What is deconstruction? Why is it a big deal? Is deconstruction the right term? Is there a better one?

I will say that the deeper you dig, the more you reasons you can have for denying that this has any legitimate basis as theology and calling it what it is - political strategy.

The problem is that I, as a current Pastor, parent, husband, community volunteer, business owner, avid reader, seminary grad, informed individual, am struggling to see positive contributions beyond this singular one by the American Evangelical stream of influence.