Every year I see something that reminds me of the divide. I call it the gospel bifurcation; people in American society use the word “gospel” in two distinct ways. […]
Columnists
Compass Bearings: Billy Graham, Lon Allison, and You
I was invited to attend the private memorial service for Billy Graham. Well, as private as it can be when millions of others join by television. […]
A Willing Obedience in the Same Reflection
Recently my husband and I tried an experiment with our preadolescent middle child. She has been resisting our authority to the extent that we decided that for two weeks we would give her liberty to make more of her own decisions. […]
Are You #BLESSED?
Several years back, the hashtag #blessed really took off on social media. Certainly, there were well-meaning folks who tagged themselves #blessed. However, after a while, many began to identify the trend as annoying and slightly ridiculous. […]
In Christ Our Milkshakes Are Safe
As a moderate progressive with a voracious appetite for pop culture ephemera, I’ve grown wary of the Milkshake Duck. […]
Expelling the Poison
There are days I would love to ignore the rest of the world—to stay off Facebook, leave the television screen blank, and toss the newspaper in the recycling bin unread. […]
Compass Bearings: Aspirational Discipleship
In my service at Covenant Offices over the past twenty-seven years in three different roles, I have had a front-row seat watching this fellowship move from being a small obscure denomination wondering about its missional impact to being a small obscure denomination that fights above its weight class. […]
The Hazards of Artificially Intelligent Design
I think a lot about artificial intelligence, in part because so much sci-fi uses AI as a dystopian horror trope. […]
Whatever Happened to Pietism?
In their wonderful new book, The Pietist Option, Covenanters Mark Pattie and Chris Gehrz frequently cite Dale Brown, a major historian of the Pietist movement. […]
What Do We Want?
All my life I’ve been an avid reader, and as a long-time blogger, I’ve built up an online community with other writers, many of whom are published. So I often get a chance to read early copies of their latest […]
Compass Bearings: A Maturing Life
The saying goes, “You are only young once, but you can be immature forever.” The Apostle Paul understood that a maturing life with Christ is not inevitable. […]
When Two Sides Are One Too Many
In progressive Portland, the idea that anyone could be so enamored by the cultural traditions of the Old South that they could overlook the horrors of American slavery is, well, laughable. It’s funny because it’s ridiculous—and also because it’s true. […]