Remember Death: a brief review

I still remember the cold and indifferent eyes of the two young men who just walked past me. Maleek* was just shot seventeen times in front of our house. A crowd had gathered as we waited for the cops to give another scoop and run. The shots ringing out, the blood-stained shirt, the lifeless body.Continue

Part 3 of my D.Min. Proposal: Ministry Model

This is the section of the proposal which outlines how I will go about implementing the proposed ministry. This is what makes the D.Min. different from the traditional PhD. It has a focus and termination in the local church. That’s what I appreciate about the D.Min. as opposed to the PhD. Ministry Model The goalContinue

Quest: A Portrait of An American Family

Meet the Raineys. Quest: A Portrait of An American Family is an intimate documentary that follows a north Philadelphia family over the span of almost a decade. Watch the Trailer: https://youtu.be/B2MSj93suYA It’s worth pausing to hear some of the comments from Director Jonathan Olshefski. This is how he describes his project:[1] Philadelphia is often atContinue

Thought’s on Eric Mason’s Woke Church, part 1

*These are just a few initial thoughts taken from ch. 1 Mason, Eric. Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice. Chicago, IL: Moody, 2018. The church is asleep when it comes to issues of race and injustice. Well, it certainly seems awake given all the rancor swirling around,Continue

Part 2 of My D.Min. Proposal

Here is the section of my D.Min. proposal that addresses the historical precedents and cultural conditions of the research question I am addressing. It is similar to the Literature Review for PhD dissertations. Introduction There is a crisis of identity within the urban context. Our concern is, how may we apologetically address this identity crisis?Continue

The Gospel is BIG Enough

Our Gospel is big enough. There is no hole in our Gospel. It doesn’t need to be expanded, filled in, or changed. If anything, our Gospel needs to be more fully understood, more fully accepted, more fully loved, and more fully treasured. All claims, cries, and calls for a bigger Gospel fail to understand justContinue

Hope for the Hood

Below is the broad outline for the apologetics course/book that I am working on. This is only part of the D. Min. project. WTS calls it the Ministry Model. The lessons will follow the broad organizational structure of Method, Commending the Faith, Defending the Faith, and Attacking Unbelief. The following are themes I intend toContinue

D.Min. Proposal: Biblical & Theological Foundations

Here’s a rough draft of the Biblical and Theological Foundations section of my D. Min. Project Proposal. This chapter will be foundational as I work through key scripture passages and follow the redemptive-historical flow of Scripture as I trace the imago dei. I have a bit of reading to do! Key Passages In order toContinue

Review: Alan Noble’s Disruptive Witness: Speaking Truth in a Distracted Age

O. Alan Noble. Disruptive Witness: Speaking Truth in a Distracted Age. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2018. Note: This review is written from a pre-release copy via InterVarsity and Netgalley. This explains some of the discrepancy of citations. Some are from the PDF Kindle edition while others are from the a different file. I hopeContinue

Christ without Compromise: The Application of Covenantal Apologetics to the Crisis of Identity in the Urban Context

Below is the introduction to my D. Min. research project proposal. Who am I? The question of identity is one that we all must wrestle with, but within the urban context, particularly the African American urban context, the question of identity has turned into a crisis of identity. There is a long history of oppression,Continue