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. […]
Magazine
Disaster Relief: In the Aftermath
Rick Millikin, pastor of Mat-Su Covenant Church in Wasilla, Alaska, was on the phone talking about his congregation’s new disaster preparedness ministry while sixty-mile-per-hour winds were ripping a quarter of the tiles from his office roof. […]
Jesus in the Mocking Robe
Entering Chicago’s Queen of All Saints Basilica, I feel small. The towering ceiling, the formal stained-glass windows, the ornate interior of carved wood and gold leaf—and especially the acoustics—all point me to a big and majestic God. […]
Disaster Relief: The Help Network
Recent natural disasters leave us all wondering how to help. The Companion asked Cecilia Williams, executive minister of Love Mercy Do Justice, and Dave Husby, director of Covenant World Relief, to answer questions about disaster response, donor fatigue, and long-term recovery plans. […]
Disaster Relief: Ashes of Lent
Late in the evening of October 8, 2017, a fire started near Tubbs Lane in Calistoga, California. Fueled by years of drought and extremely windy conditions, the fire made its way through the Mayacamas Mountains to Santa Rosa in a matter of hours. […]
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. […]
Catastrophic Grace
It was the middle of August, the end of a busy season for Mario Valdes, who leads mission trips with Merge Ministries of Serve Globally […]
Colombia: Starting Over
Colombia is no stranger to the global crisis of forced displacement. According to the United Nations refugee agency, Colombia hosts the most internally displaced people in the world […]
From Congo to Chicago: Finding Her Identity
When Triphose Khonde was a small child, her parents left her to live with their grandmother. Triphose, who graduated from North Park University last spring, was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and in the midst of ongoing civil conflict at home, her parents were looking for jobs and safety in neighboring Rwanda. […]
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. […]
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. […]
Grand Rapids, Michigan: Praying with Purni
Purni was born and raised in Bhutan in a family of ethnic Nepali farmers called Lhotshampas or Southerners. She was married in her late teens. […]