While Christians espouse the view that we are all God’s children, too often we point to those who have gifts or talents we value. Saying that everyone is somebody is not comparable to giving everyone a trophy for merely existing but treating everyone as valuable...
When Jesus was taken to be executed on the cross, 11 of the 12 men abandoned him, but the women stayed. When Jesus’ body was buried, the women were the first ones at his grave. When Jesus rose from the dead, the men were hiding, so the women announced his...
Where the Spirit of God is, there is also singing. The early church was characterized by its singing; so also in every generation where there is renewal by the Spirit a new hymnody breaks forth. If most such songs do not have staying power, some of them do, and these...
We can learn a great deal about worship by looking at the earliest Christians, for the culture that surrounded them was in many ways similar to ours in twenty-first century North America. Then and now the population is highly pluralistic, with the people’s...
The empowerment of the Spirit is not earned; it is freely given. And so with the early church at Pentecost. It was not their courage or clarity that evoked the blessing of the Spirit, for they were vulnerable and confused. The Spirit is a gift, not a possession. The...