Author Archives: Chad C. Ashby

The Lord’s Prayer: Let’s Get Litur-gi-cal!

The Lord’s Prayer is a historical mainstay in Christian liturgy, yet it has been strangely scarce in Baptist life.  I don’t mean that we never reference that portion of Matthew and Luke; we just never use it as an aid in corporate worship (i.e., pray it together in service).  When I joined a club soccerContinue reading “The Lord’s Prayer: Let’s Get Litur-gi-cal!”

The Lower Lights: A Hymn Revival, Vol. 2

Perhaps I am guilty of nostalgia, but there’s something about the old tent meetings under the open starry sky, the flickering of lanterns, and the ebbs and flows of a fire and brimstone preacher’s call for sinners to repent that really gets me going.  The 42 member group The Lower Lights have put out aContinue reading “The Lower Lights: A Hymn Revival, Vol. 2”

Is Pure Democracy the Best Path to Fairness?

I just finished reading an article from the NYT this morning entitled “Democracy Tested: Smaller States Find Outsize Clout Growing in Senate“, and as I tried my best to make it to the end still pretending I was reading an objective report (and not an editor’s opinion), a renewed admiration of our Constitution’s writers beganContinue reading “Is Pure Democracy the Best Path to Fairness?”

Gender and the Image of God

Admit it.  You’ve thought about it.  Will we have gender in the afterlife?  Jesus did say that there is no marriage after the resurrection.  No marriage=no gender, right?  And didn’t Paul say in Galatians 3:28 that “there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”  Maybe God is going toContinue reading “Gender and the Image of God”

The Bible: What Is Lost in Translation, Too?

Being a pastor in the South means that I have come into contact with the KJV-only crowd, and thoughts about translation method frequently bounce about in the potluck-addled brain of mine.  This is a continuation of a discussion begun in the post where I compared translation to baking. My friend Patrick Schreiner posted a table thatContinue reading “The Bible: What Is Lost in Translation, Too?”

The. Death. of. Nuance. in. the. English. Language.

Nuance. is. like. the. deadest. ever. Question: Are we in the business of communicating in sentences anymore, or is everyone just practicing for a pointillism art project? I believe our culture is witnessing the death of nuance.  Nothing is worth saying unless it is “the best ever”.  We end our stories with the punctuation, “ItContinue reading “The. Death. of. Nuance. in. the. English. Language.”