Jesus' teaching on nonviolence remains his most controversial teaching because we live in a world organized by violence. Which is why so many Christians want to pretend that Jesus didn't teach and model nonviolence. But to imagine a violence-endorsing Jesus is to...
There are two kinds of "everybody is welcome" churches: Everyone is welcome to conform to the church's image of what a Christian looks like. Everyone is welcome to fully embody the unique image God created them to be. Run away from the first and run toward the...
To pray is to change. Prayer is the central avenue God uses to transform us. If we are unwilling to change, we will abandon prayer as a noticeable characteristic of our lives. The closer we come to the heartbeat of God, the more we see our need and the more we desire...
Christianity should sound like, "my beliefs continue to deepen my love for others," not "the depth of my love for others is contingent on how deeply they conform to my beliefs."
"Let the little children come unto me and forbid them not, for such is the kingdom of heaven," Jesus said. He did not say let only rich or middle-class white children come. He did not say let only the strapping boys but not the girls come. He did not say let only the...
The process of being conformed to the image of Christ takes place primarily at the points of our unlikeness to Christ’s image. God meets us there, in grace, offering us the forgiveness, the cleansing, the liberation, the healing we need to begin the journey toward our...