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...
A microchurch will become a different expression of church than its congregation-based cousin. It is not for everyone, nor is it the replacement of centuries of church practice. But it might well serve the post-congregational Christians who, for a variety of reasons,...
For those who count the Bible as sacred, interpretation is not a matter of WHETHER to pick and choose, but HOW to pick and choose. ...So the question we have to ask ourselves is this: are we reading with the prejudice of love, with Christ as our model, or are we...
Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be broken. This beatitude cannot be found in Matthew 5's listing, but it certainly has clear biblical principle behind it. Dr. David Schroeder, in his study on discipleship, asserts that discipleship is not so much about...
What makes the Bible God's Word isn't its uncanny historical accuracy, as some insist, but the sacred experiences these stories point to, beyond the words themselves. Watching these ancient pilgrims work through their faith, even wrestling with how they did that,...
The people of God are not merely to mark time, waiting for God to step in and set right all that is wrong. Rather, they are to model the new heaven and new earth, and by so doing awaken longings for what God will someday bring to pass.
In most worship services, some form of music accompanies the passing of offering plates. Financial gifts are offered to God in a context of music. Unfortunately, a tendency exists to interpret the instrumental or choral offertory as background music or a nice cover-up...
The awareness that we are yet meant to do more than we are signals where God lies in wait for us to become what we are meant to be. Then the spiritual life, the awareness of a driving energy within that is greater than ourselves, greater than anything around us,...