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Engaging Science in the Life of Your Congregation

Engaging Science in the Life of Your Congregation

With so many issues to discuss, Christians can easily get the feeling that science is always attacking the faith. It is essential to balance such conversations with positive responses to God’s creation. After all, the primary response to the natural world in the Bible is to praise the God who made it.
May 14, 2013 
Deborah Haarsma 
Education, Worship & Arts
8
Hydrology of the Bow River

Hydrology of the Bow River

There’s a word beneath the water, and the Bow River belongs to God. Have you been listening?
Mar 04, 2013 
John Van Sloten 
Pastoral Voices, Sermons
0
Psalm for the January Thaw

Psalm for the January Thaw

God shows himself not just in the orderliness of nature, but powerfully, joyously and always surprisingly in its beautiful "non-order" as well.
Jan 18, 2013 
Luci Shaw 
Worship & Arts
9
<strong>Series:</strong> Science and the Bible: Intelligent Design

Series: Science and the Bible: Intelligent Design

In this series, Ted Davis identifies the history, core tenets and assumptions about the Intelligent Design view.
Dec 18, 2012 
Ted Davis 
Design, ID Movement
Frenetic Sequence

Frenetic Sequence

We tend to think of creativity in terms of flashes of insight and brilliance, of novelty, and especially of unexpected things bursting upon the scene. But creativity is no less creative and no less remarkable when it proceeds step by step, according to discipline, according to rule.
Oct 27, 2012 
Mark Sprinkle 
Worship & Arts
0
Stumble On

Stumble On

The song is built around the image of a river flowing through a canyon it has sculpted—an image that can easily be played out as a picture of the way that the Lord has been at work preparing a path for us in the material world, complete with signposts to his former and present activity.
Sep 16, 2012 
Mark Sprinkle 
Worship & Arts
4
<strong>Series:</strong> Asa Gray and Charles Darwin Discuss Evolution and Design

Series: Asa Gray and Charles Darwin Discuss Evolution and Design

Many Christians believe that they face a painful choice-- either life was designed by God or it is an evolutionary product of natural selection. Charles Darwin himself believed in this dichotomy, and people ever since have felt the need to "choose sides". However, looking back at history, we find that one of Darwin's chief scientific colleagues, Asa Gray, did not share this perspective. In this three-part essay, part 1 charts the relationship of Asa Gray and Charles Darwin. Part 2 describes Darwin's struggle with the problem of natural evil and design in nature, and part 3 explores how Asa Gray was able to embrace evolution without rejecting the idea of design.
Aug 04, 2012 
Sara Joan Miles 
Design, Problem of Evil, ID Movement
<strong>Series:</strong> Beauty, Science and Theology

Series: Beauty, Science and Theology

It doesn't take a scientist to appreciate the beauty with which God has arrayed his creation. But scientists do have the opportunity (and training) to appreciate different kinds of beauty than do most non-scientists, whether they are ordinarily "hidden" in the extremes of scale, the elegant processes of an experiment, or in the abstraction of mathematics. Indeed the appreciation of various kinds of beauty has always played a critical role in motivating scientists to investigate the world, and in helping them decipher its workings. In the three-part essay, Ruth Bancewicz explores some of the ways beauty, science and theology intertwine.
Jul 25, 2012 
Ruth Bancewicz 
Worship & Arts
Fine-tuning and the “Fruitful Universe”

Fine-tuning and the “Fruitful Universe”

I ask the question, “Why is the universe so special?” Now scientists don’t like things to be special; we like things to be general, and our natural anticipation would have been that the universe is just a common specimen of what a universe might be like.
Jun 01, 2012 
John Polkinghorne 
Design, Astronomy & Physics, ID Movement
15
Saturday Sermon: Over and Above Naturalism, Part 2

Saturday Sermon: Over and Above Naturalism, Part 2

Barkley suggests that material creation is not the end of our understanding (as Naturalists think), but a beginning that unveils the majestic and power of a Creator who loves us.
May 26, 2012 
 
Science & Worldviews, Sermons
0
Saturday Sermon: Over and Above Naturalism

Saturday Sermon: Over and Above Naturalism

Pastor Joseph Barkley of Ecclesia Church extols the greatness of the God who has brought forth incredible works and engaged humankind in relationship. In the first part of the sermon “Over and Above Naturalism,” Barkley admires the factual knowledge unlocked by science, and yet reminds the Church that those material descriptions fail to answer the question of ultimate significance.
May 19, 2012 
 
Science & Worldviews, Sermons
0
The Heavenly Declaration

The Heavenly Declaration

The universe that inspired the psalmist three thousand years ago grows grander as each new generation of astronomers adds yet another layer of understanding.
May 15, 2012 
Karl Giberson 
Worship & Arts, Design, Astronomy & Physics
0
Understanding Evolution: The Evolutionary Origins of Irreducible Complexity, Part 1

Understanding Evolution: The Evolutionary Origins of Irreducible Complexity, Part 1

I will take some time to clarify exactly how Michael Behe, the biochemist and Intelligent Design (ID) proponent who has most extensively developed the "irreducible complexity" argument, uses the term.
Apr 19, 2012 
Dennis Venema 
Design, ID Movement
13
Wheat that Springeth Green

Wheat that Springeth Green

As we remember the narrative that takes us from Good Friday through Easter morning, the image of a buried grain of wheat invites us into the story rather than just describing what happens in it.
Apr 06, 2012 
Mark Sprinkle 
Worship & Arts
3
Jefferson’s Bible and the Tears of Christ

Jefferson’s Bible and the Tears of Christ

Predictably, "Jesus Wept" did not make into the Jefferson Bible. John 11 was cut out entirely, falling onto the floor of his Monticello home and discarded, along with Martha's confession.
Mar 31, 2012 
Makoto Fujimura 
Science & Worldviews, Worship & Arts
8
<strong>Series:</strong> Science as an Instrument of Worship

Series: Science as an Instrument of Worship

In this brief series (taken from a 2009 paper), Jennifer Wiseman uses an excerpt from the famous hymn “How Great Thou Art,” to explain why the study of God’s creation can lead Christ’s followers into meaningful worship and overcome the obstacles which impede true praise. Creation as encountered through our senses is pondered by our minds, which flows into wonder-filled songs from the soul. She further explains how knowledge of creation will help Christians to address the moral dilemmas of science, and she encourages all to see the process of scientific inquiry as a means to discover God’s truth.
Mar 19, 2012 
Jennifer Wiseman 
Worship & Arts, Science as Christian Calling, Astronomy & Physics, Creation Care
Knowing Your Context

Knowing Your Context

The Psalmist affirms that the created world speaks of its creator, and that everywhere we look or listen there are words, speech pouring forth in abundance. But are we prepared to hear that speech?
Mar 17, 2012 
Mark Sprinkle 
Worship & Arts
4
Vox Balaenae

Vox Balaenae

In 1967, biologists Roger Payne and Scott McVay discovered that humpback whales “sing” and published recordings of the whales’ complex vocalizations, after which “whale song” quickly entered the popular consciousness and helped propel the “save the whales” environmental movement forward.
Mar 04, 2012 
Mark Sprinkle 
Worship & Arts, Creation Care
1
Making the Whale

Making the Whale

This week’s artistic treatment of the great whales takes as its subject a more-storied and decidedly less-gentle member of the family, but returns to our fascination with and desire to know about whatever is dramatically not us.
Feb 26, 2012 
Mark Sprinkle 
Worship & Arts
1
Humpback Whales

Humpback Whales

Of all the earth’s creatures, few deserve the description of “awesome” as do whales. Counting among their kin the largest creatures that have ever lived, whales exist in a world that remains mysterious and remote.
Feb 18, 2012 
Mark Sprinkle 
Worship & Arts
40
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