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In 2006, when the Stone-Campbell Journal Conference was held on the campus of Cincinnati Christian University, I was asked to chauffer the main speaker, Dr. Clark Pinnock, to the airport once the conference had concluded. Because I know it is sometimes a human tendency to overestimate the value of a guy who plays on our team, or conversely, to underestimate the importance of the guy we see and know on a regular basis, I chose to ask Pinnock for an honest appraisal of Dr. Jack Cottrell as a theologian upon the broader stage of evangelical Christianity.

I don’t recall whether I was even able to ask any other questions of Pinnock as we made our trek down I-75, but I’ll never forget two aspects of his response to my inquiry about Cottrell. The first was the enthusiasm with which Pinnock offered his evaluation. Pinnock was not a young man at this time and had spoken several times over the past few days (including that morning), and he appeared quite tired as I picked him up for his excursion to the airport. Yet, the moment I asked for his thoughts on Cottrell, Pinnock appeared to regain some of his expended energy in preparation for his comments. In addition to the vibrancy of his response, Pinnock offered a glowing assessment of Cottrell. “Jack is amazing!” Pinnock said. “He’s one of the best systematic theologians anywhere.” Pinnock went on to offer a few areas of “minor disagreement” (as he called it) with Cottrell, but repeated his belief—several times—that “Jack is an incredible theologian!”

A word from Chris When you move from an office and warehouse where you have been located for over 12 years, you find things. Such was the case in our very recent move to our new location at 1307 W 20th Street here in Joplin. We love our new space - and we found a couple of things in the process of moving. Something special that we found was two full sets of the Millennial Harbinger, the journal published by Alexander Campbell in the very early days of the Restoration Movement. It is a massive set of books, reprinted by...

Written by: Chris DeWelt Here are some facts regarding urbanization as they relate to life on our planet: 1. 55% of the world lives in the cities of the world today. 2. In 1800, only 4% of the world lived in the cities. 3. One hundred years later, that percentage of urbanization had risen modestly to 14% 4. Projections by credible organizations place the level of city-dwellers close to 85% by the end of the present century. In my lifetime, the urban population of the world has grown from 751 million to 4.2 billion in 2018. It is in the...

In his popular Christmas tale, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Theodore Geisel (aka, Dr. Seuss) tells the story of the Grinch who hated Christmas because his heart was “two sizes toosmall.” From his cave atop Mt. Crumpit, the angry Grinch devised a cunning plan to steal Christmas from the holiday-loving Whos residing in Who-ville below. On the night beforeChristmas the Grinch “slithered and slunk” through the Who-ville homes, robbing them of their presents, decorations, food for their feast, and everything else related to their celebration of Christmas. As the Whos awoke on Christmas morning to find their celebration items missing,...

Written by Chris DeWelt In 2015, the well-known and highly respected organization, Pew Research Center, released a landmark study titled: “The Future of World Religions: Population Growth Projections, 2010-2050.” It is easily accessible on the Pew Foundation website, so take a look at this study and the many other excellent resources available.  Although it is a few years old, the Pew report indicates many things regarding the future of the church given the current trends and their estimation of where things are headed. Here are a few things that they see coming by the year 2050 along with my comments: The...