Gary Shogren's Blog
Once upon a time, Paul told the new believers in Thessalonica: “So, for this reason we give thanks to God without fail: because when you received the proclaimed word from us, that is, the word of God, you received it, not as a human message, but as what it really is, the word of God”... Continue Reading →
The following is a scholarly address, which I seem to remember giving many years ago before the International Association of Scholars, Theologians, Philosophers and other Professional Thinking Persons (AFL-CIO). Thank you for your invitation to address this scholarly assembly. Webster’s defines “scholarly” as “Of, relating to, or characteristic of scholars or scholarship”; but later on... Continue Reading →
The first great commandment for the Christian is to love God, the second great commandment to love one's neighbor as oneself (Matt 22:34-40). The first great commandment for the Christian pastor is to love God, the second to love one's neighbor, and especially one's flock. A pastor must represent Christ to other people, principally in... Continue Reading →
It is no simple thing to preach the Word of God. Powerful dark forces are arrayed to draw us away from our task. They sometimes succeed in doing so, even without our awareness of it. I bring this up because this week I saw several FB references to “what [famous North American preacher] Rob Bell... Continue Reading →
A friend writes in to ask about codependency. He works with addicts and wants to make sure that he approaches the theme from a viewpoint of biblical counseling. Since I worked in the same sort of ministry years ago, and wrote a little about the subject of the Christian and addiction, I've had some time... Continue Reading →
The city of Bucharest in December, 1994 was celebrating the 5th anniversary of Ceauşescu's overthrow. I attended another celebration, the grand opening of the first Pizza Hut in Romania. It was also frigid cold. I was teaching Greek 1 at Timotheus Bible College. The building was still only a shell. It had sporadic electricity, but... Continue Reading →
II. COUNSELORS AND THE LANGUAGE OF HEALING We will now turn our attention to the second question: how do our contemporary counselors use healing nomenclature? The answer is not a simple one, but a survey of two influential “disease” models may help us to find the roots of the therapeutic culture. We begin with the... Continue Reading →
I’m in touch with a lot of people, mostly around North and Latin America. Here’s what I learned from FaceBook and other media this week. It was an eye-opener to read postings from various friends, and to see what we write about. Please, no intended criticism intended for anyone, since my FB postings too are sometimes... Continue Reading →
This article was originally published as “Recovering God in the Age of Therapy” by Gary Steven Shogren, in Journal of Biblical Counseling 12, No. 1 (Fall 1993): 14-19. Note: I wrote this as a lecture in 1992, to comment upon Christian literature of the 80s-90s. I have not attempted to update the examples, since they... Continue Reading →
Addendum from August 2020. In recent weeks (July, August 2020) some churches have decided to disobey the government's ban on large gatherings. In a fraction of these cases, their leaders assert that they are casting off government oppression. One California megachurch has reopened, without mandatory social distancing or face-masks and with congregational singing. They have... Continue Reading →
Open Our Eyes, Lord! 