N - PEOPLE FILES
- Renee Nal - Andy Naselli - Allison Nastoff - Philip Nation - Ezekiel Ndikumana - Carl Nelson - Jon Nelson - Elizabeth Neumann - Ingrid Newkirk - Stephen J Nichols - Carey Nieuwhof - Perry Noble - Jeff Noffsinger - Mark Noll -
RENEE NAL
ON THE RECORD: Feb 2, 2014: Renee Nal (Illinois Review) asks "Is Christianity being hijacked by progressives?" Nal wisely notices that "An effort is underway, and has been for some time, to persuade Christian Americans on various policy issues, including same-sex marriage, extending unemployment benefits, and anti-Israel initiatives, by using an oftentimes cherry-picked and/or unusual interpretation of biblical teachings." Nal says "The organizations seeking to sway public opinion are well-coordinated and often times funded by extreme leftist groups, such as the Open Society Foundation." Napp Nazworth of the Christian Post discussed one of those efforts: “Evangelical leaders supporting immigration reform praised the new set of principles on immigration reform released by House Republicans after their winter meeting.” The “Evangelical Immigration Table” leaders “hail from the left and right of the political spectrum,” Nazworth wrote, “including leaders of Focus on the Family, National Association of Evangelicals, Sojourners and the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.”-------------
Adrian Warnock: How Progressive or Liberal Christianity destroys the Church
American Unitarian Conference: When Liberal Christianity Becomes Too Liberal
Daily Beast: Can Nadia Bolz-Weber Resurrect Liberal Christianity?
Essential Christianity: A History of Evil Liberalism in the Southern Baptist Denomination
Huffington Post: The Problem With Assuming Liberal Christians Hate the Bible
NBC News: Is liberal Christianity signing its own death warrant?
Religion Online: The Future of Liberal Christianity
Right Scoop: Are liberal ‘Christians’ leading homosexuals into hell? Read this before you decide being gay is not a sin
The Atlantic: The Rise of the Christian Left in America
Adrian Warnock: How Progressive or Liberal Christianity destroys the Church
American Unitarian Conference: When Liberal Christianity Becomes Too Liberal
Daily Beast: Can Nadia Bolz-Weber Resurrect Liberal Christianity?
Essential Christianity: A History of Evil Liberalism in the Southern Baptist Denomination
Huffington Post: The Problem With Assuming Liberal Christians Hate the Bible
NBC News: Is liberal Christianity signing its own death warrant?
Religion Online: The Future of Liberal Christianity
Right Scoop: Are liberal ‘Christians’ leading homosexuals into hell? Read this before you decide being gay is not a sin
The Atlantic: The Rise of the Christian Left in America
andy naselli
Andy Naselli (PhD in theology, Bob Jones University; PhD in New Testament exegesis and theology, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is professor of systematic theology and New Testament at Bethlehem College & Seminary, administrator of Themelios, and one of the pastors of The North Church.
Andy Naselli
Someone who once professed to be a Christian may become apostate. But a genuine Christian cannot become apostate. Those who apostatize demonstrate that they were never genuine Christians: “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us” (1Jn 2:19). -Andy Naselli; Gospel Coalition; What Is Apostasy? Can a Christian Become Apostate?
allison nastoff
Allison Nastoff
I am glad disability rights activists fought for legislation that is far from perfect but does provide some recourse so that people with disabilities can have a fighting chance at realizing our nation’s ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, removing many barriers that used to prevent people with disabilities from accessing public transportation, going to a restaurant or movie theater, even getting an education or finding employment. But it should have been the other way around. If the American church were really serious about living according to Christ’s teaching, they should not even need the Americans with Disabilities Act to compel them to welcome those with disabilities. The recognition that we are image bearers of God should be written on their hearts, and they should have been ahead of their time, prioritizing access for people with disabilities and resources to educate children with disabilities above all else when making financial decisions, with the secular world lagging behind.
When it comes to culture war issues, Christian Nationalism welcomes the power of the state to impose their beliefs on society. But when religious leaders resisted the involvement of the state at the time the Americans with Disabilities Act was being drafted, Christian Nationalism was also at work, as some religious leaders disregarded Christ’s teachings, implying that people with disabilities weren’t worth the financial costs, ultimately corrupting the gospel with eugenicist, capitalistic views. --Allison Nastoff; Red Letter Christians; The Intersection of Ableism and Christian Nationalism 8.23.23
When it comes to culture war issues, Christian Nationalism welcomes the power of the state to impose their beliefs on society. But when religious leaders resisted the involvement of the state at the time the Americans with Disabilities Act was being drafted, Christian Nationalism was also at work, as some religious leaders disregarded Christ’s teachings, implying that people with disabilities weren’t worth the financial costs, ultimately corrupting the gospel with eugenicist, capitalistic views. --Allison Nastoff; Red Letter Christians; The Intersection of Ableism and Christian Nationalism 8.23.23
philip nation
Mar 6, 2014: Christianity Today: The Atonement and the Suffering Servant: Isaiah 53 by Philip Nation
This week, Philip Nation, Teaching Pastor at The Fellowship and Director of Adult Ministry Publishing at LifeWay Christian Resources, looks at the atonement in Isaiah 53.
This week, Philip Nation, Teaching Pastor at The Fellowship and Director of Adult Ministry Publishing at LifeWay Christian Resources, looks at the atonement in Isaiah 53.
ezekiel ndikumana
Nov 9, 2021: KESQ: Pastor, musician recount man waving gun at church service
The pastor and pianist at a north Nashville church recounted the minutes when a man waved a gun during the Sunday worship service.
“I don’t know how I can explain it, but I am very grateful to God how he used us to where no one got hurt,” Ezekiel Ndikumana, the pastor of the church said.
The pastor and pianist at a north Nashville church recounted the minutes when a man waved a gun during the Sunday worship service.
“I don’t know how I can explain it, but I am very grateful to God how he used us to where no one got hurt,” Ezekiel Ndikumana, the pastor of the church said.
carl nelson
Feb 14, 2023: Christianity Today: What Would Jesus Do in North Minneapolis? Buy a Gas Station.
“There have been chronic patterns of violence over many years, but in the last three years … it’s been exacerbated by the fallout effect after the murder of George Floyd and everything that cascaded down from that,” said Carl Nelson, president of Transform Minnesota, an evangelical organization that brings churches together to wrestle with social issues.
“There have been chronic patterns of violence over many years, but in the last three years … it’s been exacerbated by the fallout effect after the murder of George Floyd and everything that cascaded down from that,” said Carl Nelson, president of Transform Minnesota, an evangelical organization that brings churches together to wrestle with social issues.
May 20, 2022: MPR: How evangelical Christians in Minnesota are responding to calls for racial justice
Guests:
Guests:
- The Rev. Edrin C. Williams is the lead pastor at Sanctuary Covenant Church, which was started in 2003 in north Minneapolis as an intentionally multicultural congregation associated with the Evangelical Covenant Church.
- Carl Nelson is president and CEO of Transform Minnesota, a network of evangelical Christian congregations across Minnesota.
==jon nelson======
March 3, 2023: The Pathway: ERLC’s Leatherwood interviews former MBC president about racial reconciliation
The Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) recently released a video featuring Missouri Baptist pastor Jon Nelson, immediate past president of the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC).
The Southern Baptist Convention’s (SBC) Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) recently released a video featuring Missouri Baptist pastor Jon Nelson, immediate past president of the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC).
==elizabeth neumann======
BOOK BYTE: October 13, 2024:
In the book, "Kingdom of Rage," Elizabeth Neumann blames today’s rise in extremism on herself and the grievance-filled evangelical subculture that formed her:
"We must start by acknowledging where we have failed. For too long, conservativism, Republicans and American Christianity have tolerated extremism.
We tolerated all the precursor steps: the us-versus-them framing, the scapegoating and pushing out moderate in-group voices, even to the point of demonizing those who called us to follow the ways of Jesus and not politicians.
We tolerated conspiracy theories. … We tolerated media personalities and politicians who claimed to be Christians but trafficked in extremist language and calls for violence. … We tolerated extremism because what we really worshipped was power, control, comfort or significance. We tolerated extremism because we felt like we deserved the American dream and did not want to do anything that might disrupt it.....The proximity between evangelical Christianity and right-wing extremism in our time is both a heretical aberration of the true gospel and a natural progression of the corrupt leaders and structures within evangelical Christianity that have allowed the church to be exploited and abused.....Christian extremism is the collision of these white power and antigovernment ideologies — widely considered over the last fifty years to be fringe — with a mainstream and arguably dominant cultural force of nationalism and evangelicalism. It is this particular intermingling of world views that makes Christian extremism so uniquely troubling and so uniquely dangerous....The problem arises when a group begins constructing narratives about an out-group’s opposition to them. They define the out-group’s beliefs, traits and practices, relying on information that may be unreliable, exaggerated or based solely on an in-group member’s negative experience with the out-group. They perceive the out-group poses a threat to them. Extremism sets in when the in-group adopts hostile attitudes toward the out-group......Making ourselves aware of these ideologies and how they pervert Christianity and leverage conspiracy theories and the political system is an important way we can help stop the spread of extremism.
"We must start by acknowledging where we have failed. For too long, conservativism, Republicans and American Christianity have tolerated extremism.
We tolerated all the precursor steps: the us-versus-them framing, the scapegoating and pushing out moderate in-group voices, even to the point of demonizing those who called us to follow the ways of Jesus and not politicians.
We tolerated conspiracy theories. … We tolerated media personalities and politicians who claimed to be Christians but trafficked in extremist language and calls for violence. … We tolerated extremism because what we really worshipped was power, control, comfort or significance. We tolerated extremism because we felt like we deserved the American dream and did not want to do anything that might disrupt it.....The proximity between evangelical Christianity and right-wing extremism in our time is both a heretical aberration of the true gospel and a natural progression of the corrupt leaders and structures within evangelical Christianity that have allowed the church to be exploited and abused.....Christian extremism is the collision of these white power and antigovernment ideologies — widely considered over the last fifty years to be fringe — with a mainstream and arguably dominant cultural force of nationalism and evangelicalism. It is this particular intermingling of world views that makes Christian extremism so uniquely troubling and so uniquely dangerous....The problem arises when a group begins constructing narratives about an out-group’s opposition to them. They define the out-group’s beliefs, traits and practices, relying on information that may be unreliable, exaggerated or based solely on an in-group member’s negative experience with the out-group. They perceive the out-group poses a threat to them. Extremism sets in when the in-group adopts hostile attitudes toward the out-group......Making ourselves aware of these ideologies and how they pervert Christianity and leverage conspiracy theories and the political system is an important way we can help stop the spread of extremism.
==ingrid newkirk======
Ingrid Newkirk Files
“The Bible has long been used to justify all forms of oppression, so we’ve used ChatGPT to make it clear that a loving God would never endorse exploitation of or cruelty to animals. It took God only six days to create the entire world, but we realized it would take us years to rewrite the whole Bible, which is why we’ve started with just the first book.”
-- PETA President Ingrid Newkirk press release 7.2.23
Stephen J Nichols
Dr. Stephen J. Nichols is president of Reformation Bible College, chief academic officer for Ligonier Ministries, and a Ligonier Ministries teaching fellow. Dr. Nichols earned his M.A. in philosophy from West Chester University, M.A.R. in theology from Westminster Theological Seminary, and Ph.D. in apologetics from Westminster Theological Seminary. He also received an honorary D.H.L. from Geneva College. He has authored or edited more than thirty books, including volumes in the Guided Tour series on Martin Luther, Jonathan Edwards, and J. Gresham Machen. He recently authored R.C. Sproul: A Life and is the general editor of the Church History Study Bible. In addition, he hosts the podcasts 5 Minutes in Church History and Open Book.
Steph J Nichols
Spurgeon has got a great quote. At one point he says, I find it odd that those who think so highly of what the Holy Spirit teaches them, think so little of what the Holy Spirit teaches others also. And what is behind Spurgeon’s quote is this idea that the Holy Spirit is not a unique gift to a Christian in the 21st century. The Holy Spirit is not a unique gift to an American Christian and the 21st Century. So what we need to realize as Christians is that the Holy Spirit is a corporate gift. --Stephen J Nichols; Crossway; What Are Some Dangers of Neglecting Church History? 7.21.23
Carey Nieuwhof
May 20, 2021: Greenfield Daily Reporter: Hope for Living: Will post-COVID-19 church attendance move from in-person to virtual?
In his blog post “8 Disruptive Church Trends that will Rule 2021,” Carey Nieuwhof predicts that growing churches will shift their focus from in-person gathering at a set location and a set hour to connecting.
In his blog post “8 Disruptive Church Trends that will Rule 2021,” Carey Nieuwhof predicts that growing churches will shift their focus from in-person gathering at a set location and a set hour to connecting.
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Dec 13, 2015: One In Jesus: Carey Nieuwhof: How Pastoral Care Stunts Church Growth
I’m quickly becoming a fan of the writings of Carey Nieuwhof on church leadership. He writes very much in the manner of Thom Rainer, but he writes as the pastor of a megachurch (Connexus Church, north of Toronto Canada). |
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PERRY NOBLE
June 24, 1971: Perry Noble was born. July 10, 2016: NewSpring Church announced that Perry Noble had been removed as Senior Pastor, due to alcohol abuse and neglect of his family duties.
November 1, 2017: Noble released a statement on Faithwire announcing his divorce from Lucretia Noble after 17 years of marriage. He stated that, “After being married for 17 years I have found myself in a place I never imagined I would be — as no one who has ever been married ever dreams in a million years that their marriage will one day end in divorce.”
July 8, 2021: Crosswalk: Why Are Christian Leaders Falling?
But it’s not worth it just because of that one situation. It’s worth it because of so many other demises of late: Bill Hybels, Ravi Zacharias, James MacDonald, Darren Patrick, Tullian Tchividjian, Perry Noble, Ted Haggard, Carl Lentz… the list is gut-wrenching
Jan 30, 2015: Christian Daily: Super Bowl Sunday: SC Megachurch Moves Evening Services to Saturday; Says It's Not Sinful
Megachurch pastor Perry Noble doesn't want to impede on his churchgoers' Super Bowl plans, so NewSpring Church will again be moving its Sunday evening services to Saturday this weekend.
But it’s not worth it just because of that one situation. It’s worth it because of so many other demises of late: Bill Hybels, Ravi Zacharias, James MacDonald, Darren Patrick, Tullian Tchividjian, Perry Noble, Ted Haggard, Carl Lentz… the list is gut-wrenching
Jan 30, 2015: Christian Daily: Super Bowl Sunday: SC Megachurch Moves Evening Services to Saturday; Says It's Not Sinful
Megachurch pastor Perry Noble doesn't want to impede on his churchgoers' Super Bowl plans, so NewSpring Church will again be moving its Sunday evening services to Saturday this weekend.
Jan 25, 2015: Huffington Post: Baptist Megachurch Minister In Hot Water Over Comments On Ten Commandments
In his Christmas Eve message, Senior Pastor Perry Noble of NewSpring Church, which regularly has more than 32,000 worshippers at 11 campuses across South Carolina, told congregants that no word for “commandment” exists in Hebrew, the Old Testament’s original language.
In his Christmas Eve message, Senior Pastor Perry Noble of NewSpring Church, which regularly has more than 32,000 worshippers at 11 campuses across South Carolina, told congregants that no word for “commandment” exists in Hebrew, the Old Testament’s original language.
Sept 16, 2014: FBC Jax Watchdogs: Perry Noble and NewSpring Kick-Off the Tithing Season with Parody of Themselves!!
Below is a parody video that NewSpring Church has posted on their website to introduce Perry Noble's new sermon series entitled "The Church Just Wants Your Money". Some of the "best" (i.e. worst) teachings on money in mega churches come in September/October, so we are glad to see Perry is kicking things off with a bang! (The all time best/worst was Ed Young's tithing long bomb back in 2010 here and here.)
Below is a parody video that NewSpring Church has posted on their website to introduce Perry Noble's new sermon series entitled "The Church Just Wants Your Money". Some of the "best" (i.e. worst) teachings on money in mega churches come in September/October, so we are glad to see Perry is kicking things off with a bang! (The all time best/worst was Ed Young's tithing long bomb back in 2010 here and here.)
==jeff noffsinger======
2023 REWIND: Ky. Baptists remained faithful to the Bible, made disciples, baptized believers
More than one thousand messengers and guests gathered for the Kentucky Baptist Convention Annual Meeting at Somerset First Baptist Church in November. Messengers elected Associational Mission Strategist and evangelist Randy McPheron as KBC president, Dripping Springs Baptist Church Pastor Jeff Noffsinger as First Vice President and First Baptist Taylorsville Pastor Chance McConnell and Second Vice President.
(Mark Maynard/Kentucky Today 1/4/24)
READ MORE>>>>>
More than one thousand messengers and guests gathered for the Kentucky Baptist Convention Annual Meeting at Somerset First Baptist Church in November. Messengers elected Associational Mission Strategist and evangelist Randy McPheron as KBC president, Dripping Springs Baptist Church Pastor Jeff Noffsinger as First Vice President and First Baptist Taylorsville Pastor Chance McConnell and Second Vice President.
(Mark Maynard/Kentucky Today 1/4/24)
READ MORE>>>>>
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mark noll
Mark Allan Noll (born 1946) is an American historian specializing in the history of Christianity in the United States. He holds the position of Research Professor of History at Regent College, having previously been Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame. Noll is a Reformed evangelical Christian and in 2005 was named by Time magazine as one of the twenty-five most influential evangelicals in America.
The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis
American evangelicals have long been proficient at introspective assessments of our own movement. Since the mid-1980s, sociologists like James Davison Hunter have diagnosed evangelicalism’s contemporary virtues and pathologies, while thinkers like Mark Noll and David Bebbington have sought to interpret the movement through a historical lens. Such diagnoses have often taken on an urgent tone that, rather than undermining the movement, has been one of the keys to its endurance and vitality. In 1967, Carl Henry wrote Evangelicals at the Brink of Crisis, warning that evangelicals were in danger of being culturally marginalized. In 1976, he penned a similarly anxious missive, Evangelicals in Search of an Identity. If evangelicalism is anything at all, it is probably a movement preoccupied with such a search and with the social alienation that demands it.
(Matthew Lee Anderson/Public Discourse 11/13/23)
Read More>>>>>
American evangelicals have long been proficient at introspective assessments of our own movement. Since the mid-1980s, sociologists like James Davison Hunter have diagnosed evangelicalism’s contemporary virtues and pathologies, while thinkers like Mark Noll and David Bebbington have sought to interpret the movement through a historical lens. Such diagnoses have often taken on an urgent tone that, rather than undermining the movement, has been one of the keys to its endurance and vitality. In 1967, Carl Henry wrote Evangelicals at the Brink of Crisis, warning that evangelicals were in danger of being culturally marginalized. In 1976, he penned a similarly anxious missive, Evangelicals in Search of an Identity. If evangelicalism is anything at all, it is probably a movement preoccupied with such a search and with the social alienation that demands it.
(Matthew Lee Anderson/Public Discourse 11/13/23)
Read More>>>>>
