More than a century ago, a small group of Swedish immigrants and children of immigrants in my hometown of Attleboro, Massachusetts, decided to build a church. They wanted a place to worship together. And they want to sing the songs they knew, in a language they understood, among people they could love and trust. So they built a home where their little family of God’s friends could flourish.
Arts & Culture
Barred Justice
Dominique Gilliard is the director of racial righteousness and reconciliation for the Covenant, and author of Rethinking Incarceration: Advocating for Justice That Restores (IVP Books, 2018), which has received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. We asked him what the church can do to address mass incarceration and how we need to rethink our legal system.
Addiction & the Church
As an alcoholic in recovery, I occasionally have to deal with painful reminders of my past. It’s part of the deal. You go into recovery, and it’s really hard, and sometimes you have to pay your dues.
Incredible Worship
It’s finally here. Picking up mere moments from where the first film left off, Incredibles 2 sees the return of everyone’s favorite superfamily—Bob, Helen, Violet, Dash, and Jack-Jack. From the laugh out-loud humor (one sequence involves a raccoon and a […]
Exhibit A: Evangelicals
About ten years ago, I was in Washington DC with a group of Christian leaders discussing the intersection of evangelical faith and US foreign policy on Israel/Palestine. After a dinner with some lawmakers at the Capitol building, we took a short bus ride back to the hotel. […]
When the Cup of Endurance Runs Over
I stepped out onto the tiny porch of my sister’s second floor apartment and settled into a chair nestled among a handful of potted plants. Palm branches flanked the porch, creating a tiny urban sanctuary in the South L.A. neighborhood where she lived. […]
Asking the right questions
In the winter of 2015, I decided I wanted to be more intentional about reading and decided to treat myself to a subscription to The Atlantic. My first issue arrived one month later with a provocative cover story by Peter Beinart titled “Why America Is Moving Left.” […]
The Warmth and Light of ‘Summer in the Forest’
by Mike Hertenstein The new documentary about Templeton Award–winning humanitarian and communitarian Jean Vanier embodies its themes in ways that are almost sacramental. In 1964, Vanier learned that thousands of people with intellectual disabilities were institutionalized and labeled as “idiots.” […]
Stories from Appalachia
J.D. Vance’s much talked-about book has been on my reading list for a year now, and it was definitely worth the wait. I wanted to read Hillbilly Elegy primarily for two reasons. 1) It explores the challenges blue-collar America is facing in our post-industrial context, and as a woman from a blue-collar town in western New York, I felt drawn to this theme. […]
Our Naïve Dependence on Technology
The bulk of Wendell Berry’s new book is made up of three long essays. These can be read as summaries of Berry’s long career of cultural criticism. […]
A Beautiful, Robust Gospel Message
In This Invitational Life, Steve Carter attempts to demystify and reframe our understanding of personal evangelism. Carter, who is a teaching pastor at Willow Creek Community Church in Barrington, Illinois, acknowledges two polar approaches that most evangelicals default to when seeking to share our faith with friends and family. […]
Courageous Defiance
The central thesis of Braving the Wilderness, poignantly illustrated by the author through her own personal stories and a series of curated thoughts from notable guests, is that belonging is something that cannot be found among others but must be cultivated from within. […]