The Schooley Files

My parents were both brought up in an extremely legalistic "Holiness" branch of the church. I have always been grateful that they ...

There seems to be a great deal of emphasis in Christian circles involving "standing up for the truth": affirming an unpopular but ...

I have no intention of starting a running commentary on Rob Bell's "What Is the Bible?" series on Tumblr, but a couple of rec...

Rob Bell has been blogging a series called "What Is the Bible?" If you're interested in reading it from the beginning, it star...

Note (January 7, 2018): since this post has engendered more comments than the Blogger platform seems able to deal with, I would like to invi...

First they came for Veteran's Day, but I wasn't a veteran. Then they came for President's Day, but I wasn't a president. T...

James Franco's film adaptation of William Faulkner's novel As I Lay Dying is both wonderful and frustrating. Wonderful because it s...

For anyone interested in reading What's Wrong with Outreach, my meditation on why church growth efforts often seem counterproductiv...

My family has been on a journey to find a church for a while, and we've been toying around with the idea of starting a church in our hom...

We've all heard the phrase, "The end justifies the means." Actually, I've more often heard the phrase, "The end doe...

Around 25 years ago, back when I was doing a lot of songwriting, I wrote a song that I played in youth groups, seminary talent shows, church...

Justin Lathrop has some great things to say about productivity. My paraphrase: quality, not quantity, is what counts. Focus, thought, and t...

Jamal Jivanjee has a good post on the Illuminate blog about one of our most powerful secret weapons. I won't spoil it by telling you w...

Recently I've been running up against a controversy of which I'd previously been blissfully ignorant: the supposed conflict between ...

Scot McKnight writes a good summary/review of Andrew Root's book The Relational Pastor: Sharing in Christ by Sharing Ourselves. I thin...

What must it have been like? You've been following him for the better part of three years. You've seen amazing things that no one...

Just reviewed Scot McKnight's The King Jesus Gospel on Goodreads . I'll adapt it into a fuller discussion of the supposed Paul vs. ...

Check out Jayson Bradley's 3 Reasons to Quit Criticizing the Church . Good stuff.

[Adapted from “The Point of It All” in What's Wrong With Outreach .] The typical model of how evangelism is supposed to work divides p...

The Marginal Christianity blog has a very interesting piece suggesting that Christianity in America is indeed under persecution--but not fro...