-
By Kathryn Post
(RNS) — ‘The biggest lesson I had to learn is that God’s lack of an answer to my prayers to change me was an answer, because there was…
-
Trayvon Martin – Race, Guns, or Pride?
By Dan Martin
The killing of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman earlier this year has brought out the usual political punditry. Everyone “knows” the “real” reason Martin took a bullet, even though they…
-
Should This Family Be Illegal?
A decade ago, when we moved to Walltown and were getting to know our neighbors, my friend Andy Marin moved to Boystown in Chicago. Like me, Andy is an evangelical…
-
Speaking Out Is Complicated (And So Is Staying Silent)
For 24 years of my life, I was a church planter and pastor. At the beginning of those years, I would have gladly called myself an Evangelical. But those years…
-
A Moderately Conservative Case for the Defeat of NC Amendment 1
As soon as my husband accepted our friends’ offer of an “Another Family Against the Amendment” yard sign in January, I knew exactly how it would play out. The corrugated…
-
"The land is mine" (the importance of Leviticus 25:23)
As the debate rages within Christianity over what the Bible teaches about economic “fairness, ” a key chapter to peruse is Leviticus 25, which introduces the concept of the year…
-
The Gospel Shell Game
By Morf Morford
Photo: FlickR/Still Burning Have you ever known anyone imprisoned by a cell of their own making? Perhaps we all do it to some degree, but some do it to the…
-
Young Adults: Forget Church, Follow Jesus
Two recent articles grabbed my attention, partly because they resonate quite a bit with the pieces I’ve written about Why Young Adults Leave Church. It’s also interesting to me that…
-
"Does once saved always saved apply even though he became an atheist?”
By Kurt Willems
Source: staytondailyphoto.com I stand at the graveside of a young student. Fifteen years old. Dead in an instant. Skateboarding on a foggy night and a car that never even saw…
-
Offensive Jesus?
Nobody’s perfect. We all make mistakes. I’ve made plenty. I’ll make plenty more. And in the future, when i err, I’d like to err on the side of grace. We’ve…
-
God's Word to Evangelicals…Through Brian McLaren
By RLC Editor
A stone’s throw from Starbucks – Joe, homeless and a dead ringer for blues singer Robert Johnson, tells Wheaton College freshman Wendy Gullivan that He is God and has a…
-
True Meaning of Easter Lies in its Beauty, Not its Violence
By Kay Campbell
Springtime bursts on us with a flourish of daffodils, a hallelujah of dogwoods, and a vesper of leaf buds. A rainbow materializes to transform an evening commute into a highway…
-
The Problem With the Tebow Easter Extravaganza
I didn’t see Tim Tebow’s Easter Sunday appearance in Texas. For one, it’s in Texas and I’m not. Plus I kind of have a standing gig on Sundays. But more…
-
The Love in Resurrection
By Tony Campolo
At Calvary, we see what the power of Satan can do. We observe the demonic nature of political and religious power infused by evil. The Roman governor and the Hebrew…
-
The Love in Resurrection
By Tony Campolo
At Calvary, we see what the power of Satan can do. We observe the demonic nature of political and religious power infused by evil. The Roman governor and the Hebrew…
-
The Easter Surprise: Celebrating the first day of a new kind of week
By Kurt Willems
When you are small, the wonder of an Easter egg hunt is exiting. But as you grow older, the awe of the experience begins to fade. I remember a particular…
-
It’s Friday…But Sunday’s Comin’! (VIDEO)
By Tony Campolo
My most popular sermon undoubtedly is, “It’s FRIDAY…But SUNDAY’s Comin’!” I’ve preached this story for decades now ever since I first heard it preached in my home church in Philadelphia.…
-
Jesus, the Ham of God
By Morf Morford
How did we go from the Passover Lamb to the Easter Ham? It’s a complicated, not very pretty story, central to modern religious identity and, for those reasons, tucked away…
-
Letter From a “Demon Possessed” Woman
It’s interesting how certain patterns emerge in our lives sometimes. Part of it, I expect, has more to do with awareness than actual coincidence, like when I start seeing blue…
-
Hungry for Virtue
Christian responses to The Hunger Games have run in one of two directions. Some see the trilogy as a powerful critique of violence and the role in plays in contemporary…
-
Pigeon Monday
By Roy Goble
To Order Cheap Cialis day is Pigeon Monday. Or at least that’s what I call it. Hopefully I’ll start a new trend. It would seem that Jesus had something against…
-
Blue Like Jazz: I Was Donald Miller (w/ INTERVIEW)
I was Donald Miller. Once upon a time, a lot of us were. Some of us still are. I, too, grew up in the church. Then it hurt me. So…
-
Lent: My Hypocrisy, To Dust?
By Kent Annan
“From dust you were formed, to dust you shall return.” Those are the Ash Wednesday words. Ashes were rubbed in a cross on my forehead. Maybe on yours too. I…
-
Is the Church Saving Souls and Losing Students?
Recent data suggest that African American and Hispanic males are the primary victims of the nation’s dropout crises. According to the Schott Foundation for Public Education, only 41% of Black…
-
Hero of War: “Rise Against” Violence or Lose Your Humanity
By Kurt Willems
© 2006 | “We Could Be Heroes” | TheGiantVermin | Flikr Many of us dream of becoming a hero. To be the one who saves the day. To know what…
-
Bullies R Us
By Morf Morford
Watch your thoughts, they become words. Watch your words, they become actions. Watch your actions, they become habits. Watch your habits, they become your character. Watch your character, it becomes…
-
Four Reasons I Came Back to Church
I’ve written a couple of pieces lately that have gotten a lot of attention about why younger people tend to walk away from church. If you haven’t seen them yet,…
-
Hoodies, Skittles and a Mother's Nightmare
I have a son. He is 12 years old. He is handsome, sweet and kind-hearted. He has a great sense of humor, is a good student, a sports fanatic and…
-
Showing Jesus the Door
Feet stuffed into women’s pumps and skirt obligingly hoisted to reveal a mottled backside, Leslie Cochran presided over Austin’s parade of oddballs for over fifteen years, their undisputed Queen. Leslie…
-
The Tale of Two Shootings
Back in the day, my college mid-term and final exams often had an essay question that began, “Compare and contrast…” We were asked to show our knowledge of what we…
-
Worship, Evangelism and “Earning the Right” to Invite
Those of us who are involved in church are well-trained to invite people to worship. We find ways to bring up in conversation how great our music is, how compelling…
-
Indicting Violence: A Pacifist Review of "The Hunger Games"
By Marty Troyer
75 years after the end of the world, reluctant teenage heroine Katniss Everdeen brings it to an end yet again. Welcome to The Hunger Games, a trilogy dripping with the weight of…
-
The Dark Side of Kony 2012: Look in the Mirror
Most folks are at least somewhat familiar with the “Kony 2012″ phenomenon by now. Millions have become captivated by the story. But by and large, no one knew a thing…
-
Understanding the Criticism of KONY 2012
By Derek Flood
The viral video Kony 2012 has over 80 million hits on YouTube, and has become an internet phenomenon. The video is an artfully crafted and emotionally moving plea to stop…
-
It's (Almost) Illegal to Feed Those without Homes in Philadelphia
On March 14, 2012 Mayor Michael Nutter announced a plan to ban “outdoor feeding” in the City of Philadelphia. In effect this would make it illegal to share or distribute…
-
God's Word to Democrats – An Interview with Brian McLaren
By RLC Editor
No one enjoys being told bluntly, “you’re wrong.” It’s a statement that, even when surrounded by certainty, must be conveyed and expressed with grace, tranquility and, sometimes, a little humor.…
-
When a System Demands our Allegiance Away from Christ
By Jeremy John
When I am faced with dishonesty and fraud on a systemic scale, I ask questions of God. But as I trace the origins of injustice, I am directed back towards…
-
An Opportunity for Justice: Israel and Palestine
By Tony Campolo
Recently I was in Palestine/Israel as a speaker for a conference sponsored by the Bethlehem Bible College entitled “Christ at the Checkpoint.” The Conference was designed for Palestinian Christians and…
-
Four More (BIG) Reasons Young Adults Quit Church
There has been a surprisingly positive response to the article I published earlier in the week called “Seven Reasons Why Young Adults Quit Church.” And as I noted, it was…
-
An Unholy Wall in the Holy Land
I just returned from Bethlehem, and brought this nativity scene back as a gift. It’s a beautifully hand-carved nativity made from the olive wood distinct to the region. But you…
-
Seven Reasons Why Young Adults Quit Church
From time to time I revisit the question: why are young adults walking away from religion? Although the answer(s) vary from person to person, there are some general trends that…
-
A Nonviolent Response to Joseph Kony
Armed with the power of social media, some young North American activists set out this week to take on one of the most violent rebels in the Great Lakes Region…
-
An English Teacher Looks At Rush Limbaugh
By Morf Morford
I teach English, writing and public speaking at the college level. There are three key principles of communication; to inform, to persuade and to entertain. Effective and memorable communicators will…
-
Of Janis Joplin and Christian Women (Owed to Being Unladylike)
I was three-years old the first time I heard Janis Joplin’s “Mercedes Benz” on the radio. In 1971, Dad (though not a fan of rock and roll) thought it quite…
-
Christopher Hitchens, Diana Butler Bass and the Third Great Awakening
Everyone who calls me to speak somewhere, it seems, wants me to address the issue of declining church membership, and particularly how to connect with younger adults. The problem is…
-
Whose Kingdom, Which Lord? Jesus & Nationalism, part 5 (Concluding Exhortations… Native Americans as Victims of Nationalism)
By Kurt Willems
This is part five of a five part series on Jesus and Nationalism. It reads as one fluid written sermon so you may want to read the rest of the…
-
Whose Kingdom, Which Lord? Jesus & Nationalism, part 4 (When Two Empire's Collide)
By Kurt Willems
This is part four of a five part series on Jesus and Nationalism. It reads as one fluid written sermon so you may want to read the rest of the…
-
Whose Kingdom, Which Lord? Jesus & Nationalism, part 3 (Give to Caesar What is Caesar's?)
By Kurt Willems
This is part three of a five part series on Jesus and Nationalism. It reads as one fluid written sermon so you may want to read the rest of the…
-
Whose Kingdom, Which Lord? Jesus & Nationalism, part 2 (Caesar Augustus and Empire)
By Kurt Willems
This is part two of a five part series on Jesus and Nationalism. It reads as one fluid written sermon so you may want to read the . I hav…
-
Whose Kingdom, Which Lord? Jesus and Nationalism, part 1
By Kurt Willems
The next several posts are going to be in the form of a written sermon. I have never spoken this sermon but figured I would use the blog to get…
-
Persecution and Epistemic Closure
Epistemic closure is a recently defined philosophical term that describes someone who is so thoroughly encased in the echo chamber of their own ideology that they are completely immune to…
-
I Know Your Works
By Morf Morford
I live in what is known as earthquake country. It’s a fairly common sight to see an exposed cliff-side with a diagonal line exposing an ancient earth fracture, where one…
-
If It’s Armageddon, Do I Have To Do My Homework?
My son, Mattias, was in a religious school in town for a while for preschool. We knew going in that their beliefs did not align in a lot of ways…
-
The Power of Being a Partial Bible Christian!
“By calling ourselves Red Letter Christians, we are alluding to those old versions of the Bible wherein the words of Jesus are printed in red. In adopting the name, we…
-
Jesus for Prez
Last Monday was Presidents day. So I tweeted, ‘Jesus for president.‘ on my facebook wall, and with several followers on twitter, this generated some discussion. Some were in support of Jesus…
-
Foreclosure Resistance, A Prayer
By Jeremy John
Oh Lord, save your servant who trusts in you. –Psalm 86 A prayer lifts up from the city, like the smoke of incense. A single prayer, in the myriad of…
-
Loving Like Jesus: Views and Reviews
I ran across two items recently, one innocent and sweet, the other not so much. The first is a brief exchange between two characters in A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh.…
-
Worship and the Poor: Moving Beyond Belief
By Chris Lahr
We’ve all seen “the sign” at sporting events. For some reason, of all the Bible verses in Scripture, John 3:16 is the most commonly quoted. Throughout the NFL world this…
-
When Dreams Meet Reality: Life in Intentional Community
By Jon Huckins
After years of being a youth pastor, I remember the time I came home from yet another event that required endless administration, energy and resources and asked myself, “Is this…
-
Can I Let Go of What I Really Want…(VIDEO)
By Kent Annan
…so I can find what I really need? I want a Burger King Bacon Double Cheeseburger. I want U2’s “Achtung Baby” blasting my ear drums. I want to drive as…
-
Mardi Gras – For Baptists
It’s been almost 26 years since I left Louisiana with my parents, and I still really miss the Mardi Gras season. Mardi Gras is one long, enormous party – in…
-
Like Religious Freedom? Wear Ashes on Wednesday!
There’s been a lot of talk about religious freedom over the past couple of weeks. Whatever side of the story you believe, Christianity has taken a hit both from people…
-
Sometimes I See
By Morf Morford
Sometimes I see That flickering light, Sometimes I feel The earth in motion, Or maybe it’s a stillness Beyond stillness.
-
Jeremy Lin and The “Messiah Formula”
No, he doesn’t go down on one knee every time he nails a dunk or a perimeter shot. And as far as I know, he’s not building any hospitals in…
-
Occupy Nonviolence: Not Flesh and Blood
Amid the recent police violence in Oakland and the sure temptation of some protestors to resort to violence, I wrote this little reflection inviting all Occupiers to a renewed commitment…
-
A Year of Self-Reflection and Growth: Are You Ready for Community?
By Chris Lahr
In the past fifteen years there has been a shift towards community that was not even part of most people’s vocabulary before. Fifteen years ago, I did not hear people…
-
Is There Such Thing as a Good CEO? (VIDEO)
Check out this story about Haruka Nishimatsu, President and CEO of Japan Airlines, one of the biggest airlines in the world. He takes public transportation, shares an office with co-workers,…
-
We Are Christianity: An Open Letter to Frustrated Christians in the United States
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ, My name is Bruce Reyes-Chow and I too am a Christian. I am also a Presbyterian minister, a husband, a father and a Democrat.…
-
Is That Any Way to Treat a Bible?
By Morf Morford
We are not Catholic, but for a variety of reasons we sent our daughter to Catholic schools. In a high school religion class, the teacher approached my daughter during class,…
-
Wild Goose 2012 (VIDEO)
Over the past few months, the Wild Goose team and the staff at The Work of the People have been poring over video footage to create a highlight video from our debut…
-
Reverence for the Sacred Land: A Response to Endemic Violence in Central America
For five years I lived and worked in the outskirts of San Salvador with an organization supporting marginalized families living with HIV/AIDS. Though the agonizing combination of poverty and HIV…
-
Exorcise Wall Street
There was an occasion in the 60s where a bunch of hippies surrounded the Pentagon and tried to exorcise the demons. It didn’t work. Despite their valiant effort, not much…
-
I Apologize for Inaccurate Statistics on US Gov't War Spending
I APOLOGIZE FOR INACCURATELY QUOTING HOW MUCH THE US GOVERNMENT SPENDS ON WAR. For several years, I have been using a statistic that is grossly understated. I often say that…
-
Cussing Christians: Why I’m with Mark Driscoll on this One
By Kurt Willems
Mark Driscoll gets this one right. Seriously. In my opinion, we ought to have the freedom to use language contextually and not be bound by religiosity. That doesn’t mean that…
-
Stop Abusing the Word "Biblical"!
One of the great epidemics of modern American evangelicalism is the abuse of the word “Biblical” by attaching it to causes and ideas that have nothing to do with the…
-
The Black Letter Narrative: More than Red Letters
“By calling ourselves Red Letter Christians, we are alluding to those old versions of the Bible wherein the words of Jesus are printed in red. In adopting the name, we…
-
The Buried Talent
By Morf Morford
Sometimes I get the feeling that contemporary Christianity has completely missed the point. Here’s what I mean; on a practical, philosophical or political level, what would any of us define…
-
Examining John Piper’s “Masculine Christianity”
I really want to give people like John Piper the benefit of the doubt. Given that he’s a minister in the Baptist tradition, it doesn’t surprise me when he only…
-
The Reverse Mission: What White People Can Do About Racism
By Chris Lahr
Several years ago I was visiting the town I grew up in and was talking with a local youth worker about my life in Philly. Somewhere in the conversation she…
-
On Asperger Syndrome and Broken Hearts
Our son, Mattias, is eight years old. Everyone thinks their kid is special, and in a lot of ways, he’s just a regular kid. He loves fart jokes, enjoys riding…
-
Who Hijacked My Church?
“ Cheap levitra for sale Church folks are just too political!” When people are asked why they have decided to leave the church, this has become an increasingly popular response.…
-
Within a Yard of Hell…
By Roy Goble
The English missionary C.T. Studd said, “Some want to live within the sound of a church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of…
-
A Little Bird Told Me
By Morf Morford
A little bird told me. You’ve probably heard this familiar saying. It comes from the Bible, Ecclesiastes 10:20 to be exact. The full version is: “Do not revile the king…
-
Treat Them Like a Tax Collector: Reflections on Matthew 18, Church Discipline, and Andrew
By Kurt Willems
Jesus offers a model for reconciliation in Matthew 18.15-17. Often, these three verses are used for the opposite of this: alienation. These words operate as a law in some settings,…
-
Dorothy Day the "Great Reformer"?
This morning, at the National Prayer Breakfast, Barack Obama named Dorothy Day as a “great reformer in American history”. Who woulda thunk it? I think President Hoover called her a…
-
Collateral Murder and Preemptive Love
Today I was catching up on emails and came across two messages that deeply affected me, maybe because I read them back to back. The first one is from a…
-
We Need More Cannibals
Today’s article is the third in a series I’m creating this week on inspired vision. On Monday, I wrote about how the nostalgia preached about in contemporary politics actually leans…
-
Of Jaws, Fishing for Men, and the Kingdom of God
Quint the fisherman, played to perfection by the scene-stealing Robert Shaw in the 1975 Steven Spielberg masterpiece, Jaws, was a rugged, thick-skinned, and independent man who played by his own…
-
The Cup of Sorrow
Last Sunday, I was watching our pastor’s wife teach the children about one the most emotional parts of the gospel. She was teaching them what the crucifixion meant. As she…
-
I’m Mennonite… and Finally Became Anabaptist: Embracing our Mission to Post-Christian America
By Kurt Willems
I’m a Mennonite. Yes, it’s true. Mennonite even in the “ethnic” sense. In fact, I often say that I have more of a family wreath than a family tree because…
-
Should Christians Support the rEVOLution?
Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul recently argued for a “Golden Rule” in foreign policy in the first South Carolina GOP debate. “We endlessly bomb [other] countries, ” he said, “and…
-
Worship and the Poor: The Coming Revival
By Chris Lahr
I just got back from spending about a month in India with my family. We had the opportunity to stay with our friend who runs a children’s home, made up…
-
Evangelicals Support Newt Gingrich
By Tony Campolo
The need for Red Letter Christians to no longer be labeled “Evangelicals” became abundantly clear this past Saturday following the South Carolina Republican Primary. Most Evangelicals claim to be politically…