Author: Tom Fuerst
Pastors, Moral Failings, And The Thing Nobody Wants To Talk About by Tom Fuerst
July 6, 2015
The apostles don’t see themselves as CEOs or slaves to the church. They see themselves as fulfilling a specific duty for the church: the ministry of the word of God and prayer. Everything else was dropped from their plate. And not only did the church not look down on them or call them lazy for a desire to emphasize these two tasks alone, but this suggestion “pleased the whole community.”
Why You Should Stop Obsessing Over The End Of The World by Tom Fuerst
June 3, 2015
Creation, time, space, love, truth, goodness, and beauty are not afterthoughts in God’s plan to save the world. Each plays an intricate role in that plan. Each contributes something the overall whole of the gospel. Each reminds us of God’s good intentions for his world and the inhabitants thereof. And no matter your eschatology, you are called to live in creation, time, space, love, truth, goodness, and beauty at least until God takes you out of this world.
I’m Not A Worthless Sinner by Tom Fuerst
May 18, 2015
Worm Theology is probably a good moniker for such belief. It imprisons humanity in this notion that our sin has made us worthless. It fetters us to the falsity that the evil within us has so completely broken us that we literally have no value.
It sounds pious. It sounds like a good understanding of the holy character of God lies behind it. It sounds like something Christians should say. But is this at all what the scriptures teach? Or is this just a leftover from the shame-laden sermons we heard in our youth?
Onan The Barbarian: Self-Gratification At Its Worst by Tom Fuerst
July 9, 2014
I mean, what in the flippin’ world is happening here? Did God really just slaughter this guy for “spilling his semen on the ground”? If this story has ever interested you, then you’ll want to know why Onan the Barbarian was slain.
It’s Always Abuse, Not Just When It Involves A Child by Tom Fuerst
June 23, 2014
But what we also fail to realize and consistently communicate is that anytime a clergy member has sex with a parishioner who is not their spouse, it is abuse. The emotional, spiritual, and even societal power granted to a pastor is intertwined and inseparable from all their relations within the church. We cannot, therefore, pretend that infidelity between pastors and their parishioners is anything less than an abuse of that power, and therefore, an abuse of the parishioner.
Jesus’ Family Tree by Tom Fuerst
December 7, 2013
When I was in 8th grade, my family lived for a bit in some low income apartments. The apartment complex was formed in a square with a decent sized courtyard in the middle. In the courtyard was where all the dramatic action was – this is where kids got in fistfights with each other, where drug deals happened after dark, and where about once a week there would be a screaming match between two random people. Sometimes it would be spouses, sometimes neighbors, sometimes just two drunk people who had nothing better to do.