Ben Crosby

😂😂😂😂 this is FAR too kind, and I'm looking forward to Bishop Sarah's archepiscopacy!

Oh I think that's the one I meant, yes - and now that you mention it I do remember having the same reaction.

There was a piece about this in The Hour a while ago, I think Ben Garren wrote it?

Preaching with Power When you set out to proclaim the gospel, spare us your personal anecdotes and opinions.

Good interview of @frutledge.bsky.social by @benjamindcrosby.bsky.social

Few people have made a bigger impact on my theology of the cross and my preaching of the Word of God than Rev. Rutledge.

Her insistence on God as the subject; as the Actor on the human stage is just so indispensably true.

Am I a Christian if I Don’t Have Spiritual Experiences? Christians often desire ecstatic encounters with the divine. But not everyone has them.

"Examine and do not even listen if they speak of the glorified Jesus, unless you have first heard of the crucified Jesus."

@benjamindcrosby.bsky.social quoting Martin Luther in this new and insightful article:

www.plough.com/en/topics/fa...

Thank you so much, Serene!

This is absolutely correct.

This is a key passage for Pentecostals, who argue that this shows a distinction between 'water baptism' and 'spirit baptism.' And while I think the testimony of Scripture as a whole teaches a connection between the two, the point that here at least we see a distinction is hard to argue with.

Stan Rogers is the GOAT

I know alkaline water is kinda faddish but it has genuinely worked wonders for my acid reflux/chronic sore throats

(with the necessary qualification that I don't think manuscript preaching is *wrong*; some people preach best that way! but I think it's worth experimenting a bit, especially given a broader ecclesial culture of...none too animated sermon delivery in TEC)

Congrats!! Strongly recommend continuing to try it, or using a few notes/an outline. I usually do the latter and I'm told it's really transformed my preaching for the better.

lol okay fair, yes

oh that's VERY cool!

Root is also an excellent board game. The theme and the asymmetric factions are top-notch.

I do really love Marc Chagall and Georgia O'Keeffe.

I've tried at various points, but I don't really 'get' modern visual art after 20s/30s.

J.M.W. Turner is one of my favorite painters.

in all sincerity, i really do dislike (what seems to me to be) gratuitous vulgarity in popular music. Sarah makes a lot of fun of me for this.

it's amazing that the culture industry produced the most compelling modern popular music at the exact time that I was developing emotionally, experiencing first loves and heartbreaks and so on.

the National Park System might be the single best thing about the United States. they're truly breathtaking.

grocery store food in at least Western/Central Europe really is tastier and better for you than what you'd buy at equivalent stores in North America

lake/river swimming > ocean swimming > pool swimming

the Stadler FLIRT is probably my favorite train at the moment

i'm losing my edge!!!!

back on George Eliot, one of the most compelling things about her writing is that she makes goodness/growth in virtue novelistically interesting.

I'd much rather travel by train than by plane or car

the great crested grebe is an excellent bird

we (myself very much included) are mostly too addicted to privacy, having our own way, and frictionless lives to be capable of the collective life of thick community, mutuality, etc. that we want.

if you're funded decently enough and have a good advisor, being a PhD student is an exceedingly pleasant job for its own sake, even if it doesn't lead to a permanent academic posting down the line