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Until We Meet Again – Aloha, the Spirit, and Sharing our Air in Virtual Churches
Read more: Until We Meet Again – Aloha, the Spirit, and Sharing our Air in Virtual ChurchesIt is well-known that “Aloha” is the Hawaiian word for “hello” and “goodbye.” It is also their word for love and friendship. As someone who thinks quite a bit about the biblical understanding of “spirit,” I was interested to learn that “Aloha” conveyed a spiritual idea that could be illuminated by its two root words. …
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Kobe > Michael: And Other Reflections on Fathers
Read more: Kobe > Michael: And Other Reflections on FathersOne of the few widely shared sporting events many of us have been able to experience together during the “Covid Exile” has been ESPN’s “The Last Dance”—the uber-entertaining docuseries set to a masterful, boom bap 90’s soundtrack, offering an insider’s look back at the greatest team in history, led by its greatest player, Michael Jordan….
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Two Ways Complementarian Churches Can Be More… Complementarian
Read more: Two Ways Complementarian Churches Can Be More… ComplementarianComplementarianism. Evangelical churches embrace this term to define their position on women and church leadership. But we lack a shared vision of what this might look like in our churches. The idea of complementarianism is rooted in the principle that men and women are better together, or in more Biblical language, “It is not good…
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Asking More of the Right Questions This Christmas
Read more: Asking More of the Right Questions This ChristmasWe’re Getting Christmas Wrong Over the past few Christmases, I’m noticing an uptick in blog posts and essays about how Christians are “getting Christmas wrong,” that our old quaint stories about Jesus being born in an animal stable are historically implausible, and that our hymns and advent traditions are being “spoiled” by eminent historians who…
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Does the Apostolic Decree Command Christians Not to Eat Thanksgiving Turkey? Musings on Food and an Appeal to Reduce Meat Consumption
Read more: Does the Apostolic Decree Command Christians Not to Eat Thanksgiving Turkey? Musings on Food and an Appeal to Reduce Meat ConsumptionThe time was almost ten years ago precisely. Maybe you remember the shocking video I was watching. On my screen was Sarah Palin (in one of her many regrettable public moments), conducting an outdoor interview about pardoning turkeys, casually sipping her coffee, while two turkeys were being strangled to death behind her. I have neither…
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Why BTS Fans Give Me a Little Bit of Hope in a Tribal World
Read more: Why BTS Fans Give Me a Little Bit of Hope in a Tribal WorldIt is getting harder to explain the BTS phenomenon to people without sounding like the facts are being made up. Industry execs and celebrities have resorted to comparing it to Beatlemania — which sounds like an exaggeration until one witnesses ARMY in person (the name for their worldwide and fiercely devoted fan base). ARMY generates…
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Extending Grace To Your Church
Read more: Extending Grace To Your ChurchThe ideal church is like delicious, instant coffee. It doesn’t exist. Problems in church are not only realities, they are dead certainties given the fact that all churches unavoidably involve the inconvenience we dislike most — selfish people. We know from St. Paul’s letters that even the first churches were troubled by some serious problems….
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Is Your Body the Temple of the Holy Spirit?
Read more: Is Your Body the Temple of the Holy Spirit?I’ve spent the last few weeks thinking about Paul’s language in 1 Corinthians concerning the body, the temple, and the Holy Spirit. The primary texts are fairly well-known for Bible readers. “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy…
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Letting Go of Moving On: Slavery, The Ugly Past of Lynchings and the Problem of “Dealing” With the Past
Read more: Letting Go of Moving On: Slavery, The Ugly Past of Lynchings and the Problem of “Dealing” With the PastAmericans don’t like talking about slavery and its aftermath. Of course, many countries and peoples have their truly dark chapters, and none of their citizens “like” talking about those things either. But as is often the case, we do things different in America. Whereas Germany criminalizes holocaust denial and has erected an ineluctable memorial in the…
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My Confession as a Bad Juggler
Read more: My Confession as a Bad JugglerTina Fey once wrote that the worst question you can ask a mother has nothing to do about their age or their weight. (I respectfully disagree. As a younger, more clueless man, I once asked a woman when the baby was due. She slapped my arm and informed me her baby was already three-months old….