Dave Miller

I will admit it; I'm obsessed. I've been home from Israel for nearly three weeks now and I can't stop thinking about it. I've wasted time in my office looking through pictures and maps, reading about Israel and planning my next couple of trips back! I continue to recommend that every pastor who has not yet done so go over for a week or ten days to walk where Jesus (and David and...well, you get it) walked. I have a tendency to analyse things and categorize them. As you plan your trip, there are some recommendations that I would make, based on those categories. We went a lot of places and … [Read more...] about When You Visit Israel…

I am going to be in Des Moines on Friday and Saturday for the the Baptist Convention of Iowa 2013 annual meeting. It doesn't look like ours will be particularly eventful this year. Last year was an anomalous and tumultuous year for the BCI, but this year looks to be a return to the norm. I will mention if anything significant happens here over the weekend, but the trip got me to thinking and wondering - what is happening in State Conventions? Are they trending up or down in attendance? Are there a lot of issues? Do some of the issues at the national level find their way down to the state … [Read more...] about An SBC Voices Forum: What Happened at Your State Convention?

I wrote about the danger of theological bubbles last week. Here are some reflections and ruminations on the topic. Bubbles can be Baptist or any other denominational variety. They can be Calvinist, Traditionalist, Arminian or any other place on the soteriological perspective. They can be cessationist or charismatic. They can be eschatological. Pretty much any passionately held theological perspective runs the risk of becoming a bubble, when we isolate ourselves from other positions and those who hold them. It is noble to study the Bible and arrive at dearly held theological positions. It is … [Read more...] about You Might Be in a Theological Bubble If…

Saw this on Facebook. Thought it was pretty cool. Enjoy. Happy Halloween. Halloween: Trick or Treat? from 10ofthose.com on Vimeo. Here is the script, in case you are interested: Vast armies undead do tread through the night and In hordes march towards hapless victims to frighten. They stumble in step with glass-eyes on the prizes; Bunched hither, hunched over in monstrous disguises; In sizes not lofty but numb’ring a throng; To unleash on their prey the dreaded DING DONG. Small faces with traces of mother’s eye-liner, Peer up to the resident candy provider. And there to … [Read more...] about Halloween: Trick or Treat (Video)

I did an experiment this week, and decided pretty quickly I'd made a mistake. I have a somewhat eclectic theological combination, but I found a facebook group that I thought I fit into pretty well - one that shared both my soteriology and my eschatology. Perfect, I thought, conversing with people who are as right about these things as I am! So, I signed up and read some of the posts, engaging in a couple of discussions. Tonight, I left the group with a bad taste in my mouth and an intention not to join groups like that again. I haven't changed my theological positions; I still believe as I … [Read more...] about Get Out of Your Bubble!

Hold your ammo, there, Bubba. I give an invitation every Sunday. I give people an opportunity to respond and to come talk to me about spiritual issues. No pressure or manipulation is used. But I think it is a good thing to offer people a chance to make a public profession. It is not a biblical mandate and I realize that there are other ways to accomplish the same goal. But, at my church, we close our service with a hymn and give people an opportunity to respond. But there is one thing I don't like about the invitation - it's not really the invitation but the way people view it. I've noticed … [Read more...] about What I Don’t Like about Invitations

Sorry, I got all Baptist with my alliteration in the title. I won't let that happen again! Have you been to a good conference recently? Maybe one of the many Calvinist/Reformed conferences that focus on the "gospel" (as they see it). Perhaps you've been to one of the several "Calvinism Ain't Good" conferences that examine the points of Calvinism in order and expose their weaknesses. Perhaps you have gone to a church planting or church growth conference, or a spiritual life conference or a pastors' conference or...well, there are so many! And each of them has their own benefits and … [Read more...] about Conferences that Build Up instead of Bash, Bludgeon and Blast

Let me make two statements before I address this topic: 1) I am a longtime fan of John MacArthur's ministry, his writings, and his theology. I am in no way anti-Mac. 2) I did not attend or stream his recent "Strange Fire" conference, nor have I read the book. My experience with MacArthur and his views on the charismatic movement are based on his older book, "Charismatic Chaos" and other books I read as a young cessationist preacher boy (fresh out of Dallas Seminary), which informed my view on charismatic/Pentecostal issues for the first decade or so of my ministry. John MacArthur and the … [Read more...] about “Strange Fire”: John MacArthur is Right…and VERY Wrong

It certainly wasn't the first time I'd aggravated a denominational leader. And it, unfortunately, was far from the last time. Twenty years ago I was asked to speak at a BCI meeting with church planters to share the "success" of my church. In the two years I had been in Cedar Rapids, our church had doubled in size, then tripled. Eventually, we almost fourpled, before our attendance became more stable (unfortunately, I guess). We Baptists have a one-size-fits-all concept built deep within us. Whatever I was doing at Northbrook needed to be analyzed, quantified and reproduced in other churches. … [Read more...] about Numbers and God’s Blessing: Baptists’ Uneasy Romance with Statistics