Luke-Acts, (In)hospitality, and the other: What if we revise the story?
I was hooked. I couldn’t wait for each new episode. Malcolm Gladwell recently completed the first season of his new podcast entitled Revisionist History. In each episode, Gladwell retold fascinating...
View ArticleHusbands, submit to your wives
It’s Saturday morning and the sun is just barely on the horizon; the moonlight still dominates the morning sky. A pitter-patter of tiny toddler feet rumble across our bedroom floor and a wild-eyed,...
View ArticleBrushing up on our faith
When preparing our son Isaac for bed, it can sometimes be challenging to have him brush his teeth. His younger brother Hugh is much easier to convince. After all, when trying to change a one-year-old’s...
View ArticleCan a local church be both missional and attractive?
I had a conversation with a few friends recently where this dichotomy came up yet again: Can we be both missional and attractional? It seems like this is still a question that practitioners are...
View ArticleA new earth or a renewed earth?
From the words of the prophets in the Old Testament leading up to and culminating in the teachings of Jesus, through the writings to the early Church, there is a sense that God isn’t giving up on the...
View ArticleBuilding bridges over patriarchy
When I think about the efforts female Christian leaders are making to move women forward, I picture a shallow, muddy river. There are women on each side of the river, and there are also women standing...
View ArticleResurrecting our belief in the resurrection of the body
What happens after you die? The standard Sunday School answer is captured in the often repeated statement, “You go to heaven when you die.”But that leads to other questions like, what is heaven like?...
View Article3 reasons to cultivate a daily practice of prayerful thankfulness
Thank You for what You’ve done, Thank You for what You’re doing, Thank You for what You will do. This simple prayer is taking root in me, teaching me the deep wisdom of gratitude, and changing my life....
View ArticleEnding fear and violence in the world today
We live in a violent world. And fear, especially fear of losing what we have gained and achieved (politically, socially, economically, personally, emotionally, religiously, etc.) is the motivation...
View ArticleSurveying the evangelical landscape regarding hell
Earlier this year, Zondervan released a new volume in their Counterpoint series. This volume was unique in that it was a topic addressed in an earlier volume, now being published with a new editor...
View ArticleWhen we are despairing
The temptation is silence. The temptation is to go get busy doing something else. The temptation is pick up things that don’t really matter, not really, because then our arms will be full and we won’t...
View ArticleCreating God in our own image
It has come to my understanding that how we perceive others is often in large part a function of our own internal state, rather than a reflection of objective reality. Let me give you an example....
View ArticleReordering our lives around Jesus’s table
In my church family, we have a eucharistic orientation to our weekly worship gathering, which moves us directly from the proclamation of the Word (sermon, teaching or open conversation) to the Table....
View ArticleChristian certitude: A disaster waiting to happen
Do you love your faith so little that you have never battled a single fear lest your faith should not be true? Where there are no doubts, no questions, no perplexities, there can be no growth. – George...
View ArticleFor declining or growing Canadian churches, do beliefs matter?
Mainline churches in Canada are dying. Since 1960 - Lutherans, Anglicans, Presbyterians, and the United Church have lost half their members. The United Church closes one church a week, on average. But...
View ArticleIn a loud and rushed world, I’ve needed the silent waiting of Advent
November was a long, dark, and loud month for me. It often felt like a downward spiral from difficult to devastating, and the increasing darkness that comes with the longer nights of this month has...
View ArticleWhen did we stop caring about Christian unity?
It seems to me that something strange is going on. The present state of our culture has caused many of us, especially Christians, to forget the urgent and essential biblical practice of unity. I've...
View ArticleHas the Church lost its focus?
Lately I have been thinking about this question: Have we lost our focus? As I scroll through my news feed, I am inundated with posts of political alignments, opinions, and fears. Though these things...
View ArticleI’m waiting on a personal Christmas
Oh, we need a little Christmas, right this very minute…. Have you ever felt like something was off, something you couldn’t quite place but you were sure of just the same; a subtle, but very profound...
View ArticleThe gifts I want for Christmas
My Christmas wishes this year are pretty boring. A stock pot, and a cheese board. After numerous requests from my kids for “a list” I mentally went through each room of our house, considered my closet,...
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