I love poetry. Nearly every morning I read one or more poems to begin my day. I love the evocative images and startling metaphors. Poets have a way of bringing us up short, of making us look at an overly familiar world anew.
Columnists
Counting What Counts
Count and report. Count and report. My initial days as a church planter felt urgent. Not only was I full of vision, I was eager to prove that the vision my co-pastor husband and I shared was a vision that could reach a lot of people.
In desperate times, the e-word needs a remix
Two years ago, I wrote in this space about the erosion of meaning that has befallen the term “evangelical.” For a variety of reasons, I was ready to toss it out. I believed then, as I do now, the term has become relational kryptonite. Its negative connotations make true evangelism all but impossible.
Mission Musings: From the Finance Team
A recent meeting with the Finance Committee of the Executive Board served to remind me of the privilege we experience daily in serving the ECC. Each committee member, bringing remarkable and varied gifts in real estate, finance, business ownership, and entrepreneurship, commented on their own personal connection to our work.
Will Evangelicalism Die with Billy Graham?
American church historians trace the beginning of the evangelical movement to the early ministry of Billy Graham. His evangelistic crusades were transdenominational and open to anyone open to his proclamation of the gospel. […]
A Gospel Opportunity
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. […]
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. […]