’Tis the season to give thanks. It’s the time of year when we ask each other, “What are you thankful for?” And studies indicate that 78 percent of Americans say they felt strongly grateful in the past week.
Arts & Culture
This I Know
Recently someone asked me, “Why don’t you preach more about the wrath of God?” It threw me off. Why don’t I preach more about the wrath of God?
Across the Divides
A caveat: I know and adore the authors of Impossible Love. I used to work with Craig and Médine Keener when we were all associated with Eastern University near Philadelphia. So if you’re looking for an objective, dispassionate review of this book, then mine will likely not do much for you.
Strength in Numbers
If you’ve participated in a leadership conference, team building event, or spiritual direction retreat in recent years, you’ve probably heard talk of the Enneagram. It’s a frequent topic among my friends and colleagues, both in casual conversation and in discussing our work in ministry.
Discovering God the Good, Good Father
Choose and Choose Again is a mosaic of personal stories collected by author and Covenant pastor J. Kevin Butcher, who founded Hope Community Church in Detroit, Michigan. The stories he shares (as well as his own testimony) display the complexities of people who live their lives as prisoners and prostitutes, as well as those who are lawyers and in business.
Anxiety Led to Worship Leader’s New Record
Musicians often experience some level of anxiety when they release new albums, but Jill Jones’s new record, “Perfectly Clear,” was uniquely born out of her struggles with post-partum anxiety. It’s also the result of her journey of healing.
Where Is It Written?
A number of years ago I overheard an interesting conversation at my local Starbucks. From what I could gather, it seemed that a sincere Christian was struggling to field questions from an ardent atheist: How can you take the Bible seriously when there are inconsistencies within it? How can you trust a God that would command genocide? Partly I was tempted to chime in, but truthfully, I didn’t have great answers to the questions myself.
The Returning Ones
The book called out to me. That’s all I can say. I’d heard about it in passing, then one day I saw it on my colleague’s desk. Perhaps it was the phrase “I’m perfect” that was scribbled out and re-written “The Imperfect Pastor,” that struck me. But I still didn’t read it. Several years later, it sat languishing on my nightstand until I finally had enough wisdom (or desperation) to pick it up.
New Album Aims to Make Hymns More Accessible
WINNIPEG, MANITOBA (August 1, 2018) – Cody Anderson, a pastor at Faith Covenant Church, was more than a little nervous when he sent a link to the video of his reworked version of the hymn “As We Gather at Your […]
Look for the Helpers: Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Review
What comes to mind when you think about Fred Rogers? The zip-up sweaters and lace-up sneakers? The trips out into the neighborhood, where we meet people who do interesting jobs and make everyday things?
Powerful Testimony, Convicting Narrative
In his book Who God Says You Are: A Christian Understanding of Identity, Klyne Snodgrass, North Park Theological Seminary emeritus professor of New Testament, writes, “We were created as relational beings, first for relation with God but also with others, as difficult as relations sometimes are. You will never make it on your own, nor will you be healthy trying to.” Yet community can be a tricky thing. As Christ-followers, we experience a tension: we share and do life with others, yet at some point we are inevitably wounded by relationships. […]
Can “Evangelical” Be Saved?
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.