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

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.

Related Reading

Reflections on the Supremacy of Christ (Part 2)

Whereas most Christians place the revelation of God in Christ alongside of other portraits of God and end up with an amalgamated image of God, we at ReKnew encourage believers to base their understanding of God completely on Christ, and especially on Christ crucified. And we encourage disciples to work to reinterpret through the lens…

Reasons God Does Not Control Everything

First, the belief that God is all-powerful does not mean that God exercises all power. It only means that God is the ultimate source of all power. Fallen people may value the ability to control others and project this attribute onto God (Matthew 20:25-28). But the cross breaks all of our fallen assumptions about what…

Podcast: Why is First Peter SO Harsh Towards Women?

Greg looks at Peter’s harsh views of women through a Cruciform lens. http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0237.mp3

When the Bible Becomes an Idol

In John 5, we read about Jesus confronting some religious leaders saying, “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life” (John 5:39-40). These leaders thought they possessed life by…

What To Do With the Violent God of the Old Testament

For eight years Greg has been researching for and writing the book entitled The Crucifixion of the Warrior God. In it he confronts the commonly held idea that the Old Testament depictions of God behaving violently should be held alongside of and equal to the God revealed through Jesus dying on the cross. But if the Old Testament…

Lighten Up: Are You a Theology Nerd?

Are you a theology nerd? Click here, and if you find yourself nodding your head a lot, you probably are. And that’s OK. Image via Adam Ford