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 […]
Columnists
Our Place in the Race
I sat in a room full of church staff as we mourned the loss of a young person to gun violence. One of the women present expressed that she found relief in the fact that through our ministry programs, we [...]
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 […]
Can I Be Honest?
I had that “I’m so out of touch these days” feeling recently when I learned that “tbh” in Instagram context didn’t actually mean what I thought it did. Pre-social media, when one began a statement with “to be honest,” it […]
Choosing Stillness
Red rocks at Mt. Sinai In my role as pastor, I preach about 40 sermons a year. While I’d like to think each one is received as a riveting, indispensable moment of heavenly wisdom for life, here’s a confession: some [...]
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 […]
Enjoy Life
I recently learned that my maternal grandfather, a pastor who planted churches in Korea and founded a Korean American immigrant church in the United States, regularly conveyed these words of guidance to his own children: “Enjoy life.” It was with […]
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 […]
Seeking Truth
The opening lines of the HBO miniseries Chernobyl, released earlier this summer, set the stage for its depiction of the USSR’s handling of the world’s most destructive nuclear accident: “What is the cost of lies? It’s not that we’ll mistake […]
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 […]
Becoming Enough
“Enough” is not a word that typically inspires. Perhaps we’ve had enough of something negative—“enough already.” Or maybe we’ve reached the minimum threshold of something positive—“good enough.” But when is something, or someone, simply enough? Prior to entering vocational ministry, […]
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 […]