Ranging three centuries, McCoy and Bakers attempt to trace the development of federalism from 16th-century Reformers until the start of political federalism with the promulgation of the United States Constitution. They try to retrieve the role that federalism has had in modern society (political/philosophical federalism) and in theology (covenant theology), pointing it out Heinrich Bullinger as the first one to start this tradition. In general, federalism highlights the importance of covenants in the relation between God and humankind, even it can be applied to the relation between humans or social groups, for instance. In this regard, if McCoy and Baker …

What roles did Pope Paul III, Ignatius Loyola and the Jesuits, and the Council of Trent play in the Counter-Reformation? In the following post, I will briefly answer these questions and provide a brief overview of the Catholic/Counter-Reformation, including its roots. First of all, the Catholic/Counter-Reformation Reformation was the response and/or reaction of the Catholic church toward the challenges made by the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation. The Protestant Reformation started with Luther’s proclamation of the 95 theses in 1517 while Leo X was the Pope of the Catholic church. But it was not until the papacy of Paul III that significant …

Dave Davis explores whether pastors must be involved more in the financial process in their congregations. For Davis, such involvement includes knowing what amount of money each member gives, or at least, the persons who give the most. This raises the question of whether giving should be personal but not private. In this brief reflection, I respond with a “yes” to this question regardless of socio-cultural context. I offer brief reasons. In a church context where people give money for the administration of the congregation, I think how the money is earned, spent, saved, and alike, all of these aspects …

In his Money and Possessions, Walter Brueggemann deduces from the Scriptures six general principles that can help to better understand how the Hebrew and Christian Bible inform us about money and possessions. Although there can be more than these six principles, Brueggemann asserts that these six are the clearest to him. In a nutshell, the first principle has to do with God being the source of gifts and all goodness. Brueggemann finds support for this principle in the Genesis narrative of the creation. God is not only the creator of all living creatures but also the provider, where he has …

Discussing the budgeting process with the Church treasurer (CT) of a friend’s congregation, I realized this church uses a formal process with a team receiving all the financial information, who process all data provided by the staff and reporting back quarterly. It surprised me to discover that there are two financial officers in the congregation who work with the financial team to oversight all finances and better control them after a series of difficult challenges in the past. Each ministry has a designated budget managed by the director of that ministry. If extra money is needed after the budget is …

Reflecting on what Jeff Manion wrote on pages 104-06 in his book Satisfied about writing a journal for life, it gets my attention what he says: I write.. because I am prone to forget that I am deeply loved by the Father. I reminded myself that I am his. He adopted me, paid for me, and I am his. I am his cherished son. His treasured kid (see p. 105). In the same way we write our prayers and notes in a journal, calculating a budget in a sheet resembles journal writing. In fact, I would define a budget as …