“One small silver lining in the rancor about race in America is that it might help propel us beyond polite dishonesty into real conversation.”
Jelani Greenidge
To Confront Racism, First Examine What’s in Your Hand
Columnist Jelani Greenidge reminds us that God can use the things we already hold to bring about deliverance
For Dominant Christian Culture, It’s Excavation or Extinction
Rigid conformity robs us from experiencing all the richness and beauty of God’s creation.
The Lord Is My Smartphone
One of the challenges every pastor has is to present God’s word in a way that is relatable to people in their everyday context. It requires the skill of cultural exegesis—learning the nuances of a culture in order to accurately […]
I Promise This One Is Worth Reading (Maybe)
Holly and I have settled into an unofficial practice that accompanies our television viewing: we often find ourselves rating the promises we see onscreen. You know on a cop show when there’s a brutal killing, and the detective assigned to […]
Resisting the Divide
In an episode of the TV dramedy Sports Night, wisecracking white sports anchor Dan Rydell (Josh Charles) is being reprimanded by his loving-yet-taciturn African American boss, Isaac Jaffe (the great Robert Guillaume), when Dan tries to defend his point of […]
Lift Jesus Up, Carefully, Please
Breaking away from the pack to do something different can produce obvious benefits, but there can also be unintended consequences. In the Hamilton showstopper “The Room Where It Happens,” the titular hero lectures his frenemy Aaron Burr, “When you got […]
Voices: Forgiveness Is a Gift. Don’t Turn It into a Weapon
Sometimes, in my mind’s eye, I like to conceive of what I call Biblical deleted scenes […]
An Oregonian Lament
Despite living in Portland, I do not consider myself a true Oregonian. This is partially because I understand our history, and I’ll likely never truly feel at home in a state intentionally founded to exclude black people. But also Oregon […]
Trading Office Plants for Sand Castles
In the latest chapter of my ministry journey, I’m now in the beginning stages of trying to plant a church. The existing congregation I serve is not capable of growing into the kind of diverse, welcoming, multigenerational church it wants […]
“I’ve got the power.” Now what?
One of the more obvious ways I feel like my culture is at odds with evangelicalism is in our approach to power. I’m part of the hip-hop generation. For us, power is an ever-present topic of thought and conversation—who has […]
Seek the Giver, Not the GIFs
A familiar social media ritual happens in my Facebook feed every day. Someone will post a clickbait headline designed to shock, surprise, or inflame. Then people post their reactions. Many times those reactions, instead of being written comments or emojis, […]