We frequently view these smaller churches as merely being recipients of help. Instead, they are partners that often serve as incubators for future ministers and lay ministers of all-sized churches.
Cheap Grace, Acts 7
If, as a church today, we are living out a comfortable and easy Christianity—if the practice of our faith presents us with no challenge or sacrifice, no discomfort or opposition—perhaps it is because the grace we are living by is a cheap grace.
Reframing Agape Love
What if Paul is wanting us to understand not how to love better, but instead what God’s love for us is like? What if this love from God is what Paul actually meant when he said at the end of the 1 Corinthians 12, “And yet I will show you the most excellent way?”
Leadership Practices: Prayer
Such a path of discovery sits at odds with usual practice. Congregational leaders may be tempted to play out a hunch, try what some other church has done, or impose their own will on a congregation. Yet Paul’s prayer leads contemporary leaders to a different kind of practice.
The Every Sunday Ask
The Holy Spirit will connect us to non-believers. May God bless us as we seek to draw them, invite them, call them into a relationship with Jesus.
The Question I Was Asking Wrong
I did what most people do when they first encounter the Enneagram: I started asking everyone around me things like “Do you do this?” People would look at me a little sideways, and I could not figure out why my question was not landing.
Learning a New Language
I came to deeply admire and respect the faith of my brothers and sisters in Christ in Argentina. We didn’t always agree on theological points of view or ministerial practice but I loved and admired their profound faith and faithfulness to the way of Jesus.
A Call for Greater Consideration of Small and Rural Churches
When a small church closes, a community loses both its anchor and the energy generated when it responds to local needs.
Learning from What I Don’t Know
I have questions about the story in John 8 about the woman caught in adultry. I want to know what Jesus wrote when they were trying to trap him between loving people and keeping God’s Word.
Christianity on the Move, Acts 8
Individually, we are only a grain of salt, and a grain of salt by itself is not very useful. It doesn't season anything. It doesn't preserve anything. Salt must be used in handfuls to fulfill its function. The church is the salt of the earth as a community, and therefore, it must preach the gospel as a community.
Is the Church a Gold Mine or a Bottomless Pit?
Church is meant to be more than a bearer of ideology. We are to be a pilgrim people, journeying together on the difficult yet rewarding path of becoming more and more godly each day, while inviting others to join us on that journey.
Musings Over a Napkin
Such work—teaching, proclaiming, healing—is the work of Jesus’s ministry. And it is the work of Jesus’s people. Whether those believers are found in the ancient city of Antioch or in towns and cities across this land today, the work is the same.
Woven
Consider a single thread and how easily it can be snapped or broken when pulled from opposite ends. Then look at a braid, where each strand is no longer individual but is plaited to form a stronger, interlocking structure.
Trusting and Practicing Your Story in God’s Story
Though we likely believe that God is in what we feel called to do, there is a serious temptation towards doubt and apprehension towards failure in those partnering with God’s Spirit in kingdom building.
Are You Growing?
So ask yourself, am I feeding my flesh, or am I feeding my soul? Am I merely wearing the name of Jesus, or is His Spirit shaping my life?
Mending Generational Divides: The Practice of Listening for Unity
We all have the capacity to make relational choices that can help mend age segregation in our churches. Specifically, I want to offer one practice for followers of Jesus that can help all of us swim upstream towards greater unity in the generational body of Christ: the practice of listening for unity.
Baptism and the Power of Resurrection
We talk about God’s love shown through the death of His Son on the cross for our sins. Baptism is the way we share in that death and in that love. We talk about our sins being buried. And lately, we have been talking quite a bit about the power of resurrection and baptism.
Not Giving Up: Reframing the Ethics of Allowing a Natural Death
What I have found, though, is that families in crisis rarely need an ethics lecture. They need permission: permission to grieve, permission to be afraid, and permission to believe that letting go of aggressive treatment is not the same as letting go of the person they love.
Navigating Hopes and Fears in the ICU
I am a navigator in the various intersections of hopes and fears emerging into ethical dilemmas unfolding in the ICU. Within the hospital setting, chaplains offer emotional support and spiritual care services as members of the patient care team while simultaneously addressing ethical considerations by upholding confidentiality and impartiality.
What is a Good Death?
We are skilled professionals, capable of having difficult conversations in moments of crisis. We can share hard news and provide education about options in ways that are compassionate and loving. What we cannot do, though, is presume to know the best way for someone to die.