Rick Mattson's Blog, page 4

Tradition as a Guardrail

Students on campus sometimes ask me what makes my interpretation of the Bible — or anyone else’s — the right one. Two replies 1. We need to discern the intent of the biblical authors There’s a rule that most Bible scholars follow: A text can’t mean what it never meant. * So we need to […]

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It’s Not About the Numbers. Or Is It? Part 1 of 2

A church I’m familiar with closed its doors, recently, due to low attendance numbers. Lacking sufficient volunteers and income, they were forced to call it quits. I visited the final service. The message for the morning was presented from the OT book of Numbers, and had nothing to do with arithmetic (but rather, a blessing […]

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It’s Not About the Numbers. Or Is It? Part 2 of 2

In the prior post I asked the question of whether growth is a proper measure of a ministry. Some say yes, because the kingdom of God should be ever expanding. Others object. They measure ministry by how faithful its leaders have been in discipling the flock. Such faithfulness may lead to numerical growth, but if […]

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Objective Truth is Back

On a Christian podcast I listened to recently (which shall go unnamed), the speaker was lamenting the loss of “absolute truth” in our world. Postmodernism was to blame. But I wonder if, perhaps, that commentary is outdated by about ten years in the university world. Everything on campus is so complex these days; I hesitate […]

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What I’m Working on, Part 4 of 4: Co-writing a book with an atheist

Part 1: Living Inside-to-out Part 2: Black Theology Part 3: The Body Popular Minnesota atheist Tom Jump recently invited me to co-author a book with him on ethics. The main question of the book is whether objective morality can be explained best by atheism or theism. What I’m working on: Researching the theological basis for Christian ethics, and formulating a ...

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What I’m Working on, Part 3 of 3: The Body

I’ll never be accused of having a manly body. My mom told me growing up that I had girly legs. I wasn’t offended by this observation because I couldn’t disagree. Why duck from the truth? One of the things I’m working on these days is the body. Part 1 is here: Living Inside-to-out Part 2 […]

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What I’m Working on, Part 3: The Body

I’ll never be accused of having a manly body. My mom told me growing up that I had girly legs. I wasn’t offended by this observation because I couldn’t disagree. Why duck from the truth? One of the things I’m working on these days is the body. Part 1 is here: Living Inside-to-out Part 2 is here: Black Theology This ...

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What I’m Working on Part 2 of 3: Black Theology

This series is simply about things I’m working on. I’m not claiming that “what I’m working on” is anything uniquely important or profound. Yet, I wish I knew more of what others are working on (I’d love to hear from you!). So perhaps you’d like to hear my list. #1: Living inside-to-out (prior post): Starting […]

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What I’m Working on Part 2: Black Theology

This series is simply about things I’m working on. I’m not claiming that “what I’m working on” is anything uniquely important or profound. Yet, I wish I knew more of what others are working on (I’d love to hear from you!). So perhaps you’d like to hear my list. #1: Living inside-to-out (prior post): Starting with prayer and Scripture and ...

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What I’m Working On: Part 1: Inside-to-Out

The life I lead is not necessarily fascinating. So why share with you what I’m “working on”? Well, just to keep the conversation going. To keep the ideas flowing. To pass on what I’m learning. First thing of note I’m working on living inside-to-out. That is, to make prayer and Scripture my starting points, then build out from there. The ...

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