We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

Changing Your Mind

via mystockphotos.com
Mark Moore is a man who has changed his mind about a lot of things which is somewhat extraordinary these days. Change can be costly and painful and this was certainly true for Mark. He previously pastored Providence Community Church in Plano, TX, where he pastored for eleven years based upon a set of theological assumptions he no longer holds. This is so rare, to be open to a new way of thinking, especially when there’s so much at stake.
Mark wrote a two part blog for Missio Alliance on how he changed his mind about women in ministry, but it’s really about how he changed his way of interacting with and understanding the Bible. You can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.
Here’s a snippet to get you started:
The result of reading the Bible as story, as opposed to systematic theology, was that the background of the story—people, places, circumstances, etc.—became absolutely essential to understanding what was actually taking place in the text. One day I realized that I had very little understanding of the world of the 1st century; instead I had a whole lot of understanding of the world of the 16th century. I began studying 1st century Judaism and the Roman Empire and when I did the New Testament began to come alive. It sounds cliché, but it was literally like going from black and white to color television, which makes you want to go back and re-watch your favorite shows in order to see what color their clothes actually were—I was re-reading the Bible and picking up on colors I’d never seen before.
Category: General
Tags: Bible, Change, Mark Moore, Missio Alliance, Providence, Systematic Theology, Theology, Women In Ministry
Related Reading

When the Bible has Errors
In the previous post, we dealt with the question of why we are able to trust Scripture. But we need to explore this further because if you read the Bible carefully, you will find parts that look erroneous. Some aspects of the Bible don’t line up with what we know from history and science. Let’s…

Changing Beliefs
Stephen Mattson is a follower of ReKnew and a member of Woodland Hills Church who posted a piece on Sojourners titled Christians: It’s NOT a Sin to Change Your Beliefs. He points out that doubt and questions are a natural and needed part of any Christian’s life, and our community needs to change the ways we…

History and Bible: Do They Align?
To begin, it is significant that when Jesus and the authors of the NT referred to their sacred writings as “God-breathed,” they were referring to the writings that had been handed down to them. So too, the text that the Church has always confessed to be “God-breathed” has been the canon she received. Never has…

Does Prayer Really Change Things?
Many people operate out of a blueprint model where God is viewed as absolutely unchanging, and all that occurs in the world is the unfolding of an eternal divine plan. If this is the case, then the purpose of prayer is to change us, not to change things. While prayer does change us, the Bible…

When the Bible Isn’t Clear
Mark Grapengater via Compfight Roger Olson wrote a post today entitled How to Solve a Theological Dilemma when Scripture Doesn’t Clearly Solve It: An Exercise in Theological Method. The title itself is provocative and problematic if you’re a fundamentalist, so Roger spends some time dealing with the mindset of fundamentalism. This is a really valuable read if…

Responding to Driscoll’s “Is God a Pacifist?” Part I
I’m sure many of you have read Mark Driscoll’s recent blog titled “Is God a Pacifist?” in which he argues against Christian pacifism. I’ve decided to address this in a series of three posts, not because I think Driscoll’s arguments are particularly noteworthy, but because it provides me with an opportunity to make a case against what I’ve…