Back-Porch Theology

Book excerpt: I was a hybrid United Methodist preacher among the Baptist Knights of the Long Table--that's what I called them, as they met every morning at Jasper's Porch Restaurant in Ridgeland, South Carolina. Theological questions were discussed that would've made John Wesley or John Calvin proud. Although Baptist, they welcomed me like the father of the returning prodigal son. Those breakfast meetings were more enthusiastic and beneficial than any seminary classroom I ever remembered. The discussions were living proof that God is with us even though sometimes we wander about in the fields like Joseph hunting for his brothers. We covered the whole spectrum of Systematic Theology over multiple cups of hot coffee, ranging from the creation and fall, the mark of Cain, the Nephilim giants, the Great Deluge, and the final passion week of Jesus Christ, to name a few. Back-Porch Theology reveals that theology was never meant to be shut up in a seminary classroom.