Mike Wittmer

What I think. What I know. What I think I know.

  • what’s so great about being a pastor?

    Today is my 42nd birthday, which means I am two years past the date when I said I would re-evaluate whether to remain a professor or look to shepherd a church. I always planned on being a pastor, ever since I was a junior in high school. So I earned a pre-seminary degree in college,…

  • questions about the new perspective

    Trevin Wax posted his recent interview with N.T. Wright on the topic of Wright’s much anticipated response to John Piper which will be published next month in the U.K. and this summer by IVP in the states. While I enjoy Wright’s stuff and have learned from interacting with the new perspective on Paul, a paragraph from…

  • how once upon a time America decreased its abortion rate

    Marvin Olasky shares some key findings from his book, Abortion Rites: A Social History of Abortion in America (Crossway) in the current issue of World magazine.  You may read his provocative article here:  http://www.worldmag.com/printer.cfm?id=14857. Olasky’s surprising discovery is that the rate of abortion relative to the population was higher in America on the eve of…

  • Calvin’s other names

    In honor of the 500th anniversary of John Calvin’s birth, I will periodically test your knowledge of the great, and mostly accurate, Reformer. Today’s question:  like many other Reformers, Calvin sometimes used an alias to avoid detection.  Which two did he use?  I will give the answer in the first comment. a. Just some guy…

  • can you cheer for Cleveland and remain a Christian?

    Christian sports fans in Northeast Ohio will hit a new low this weekend.  The AFC championship game features the two teams we hate the most:  the Pittsburgh Steelers, our long-time rivals before we lost our team, and the Baltimore Ravens, who are that team we lost.  It’s obvious now that the Steelers-Browns rivalry never really…

  • real conversation

    Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit a Cornerstone class that is role playing its way through Don’t Stop Believing.  Four people address the topic of each chapter, with two representing a modern conservative viewpoint and two arguing for a postmodern innovator perspective.  They looked like they were having fun, and it was a special…

  • the next big thing

    What do you get when you combine America’s favorite book with everyone’s favorite mammal?  Have a look:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20Q32xIyoeo&eurl=http://whatswrongwiththeworld.net/&feature=player_embedded I hope this two minute commercial doesn’t inspire anyone’s sermons this Sunday (I’m looking at you, Joel Osteen).

  • faith and doubt

    Last week Julie and I took advantage of the free babysitting provided by our public school system to attend John Ortberg’s lecture on faith and doubt at Calvin College’s January Series.  I take every opportunity to hear great preachers (Neal Plantinga probably thinks I’m stalking him), so I was glad for the chance to hear…

  • and the word after that

    Seriously, this is the last time I am going to bring this up, but the questions surrounding Ed Dobson’s year of living like Jesus made the lead story in the Grand Rapids Press this morning.  You can access an online version of the article here:   http://www.mlive.com/living/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2009/01/ed_dobsons_walk_with_jesus_lea.html.  I am quoted near the end of the print article (apparently blogs…

  • new year resolutions for women

    My good friend Ann Byle, author of The Making of a Christian Bestseller (highly recommended for authors) and coauthor of Bethany Hamilton’s devotional for teenage girls (you may remember that Bethany’s arm was bitten by a shark a few years ago, an unfortunate event which strangely qualifies her to speak to the struggles of adolescent Christian girls; I don’t remember the title…