Author: Michelle Van Loon
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Some Assembly Required: A Conversation
Twenty years ago, author Anne Lamott was ambushed by her unexpected pregnancy. Her best selling 1993 memoir, Operating Instructions, describes her tumultuous first year as a single mother after her son Sam’s birth. When Sam turned 19, he told his mom that he and girlfriend Amy were about to become parents, a life-altering event for…
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A short stack of mini-reviews
Is there anything more inviting than a stack of books waiting TBR (to be read)? Whether they’re piled on a nightstand, a coffee table or next to a Adirondack chair parked alongside a freshwater lake, the promise of new worlds awaits between the covers of the books in a TBR pile. And there’s something almost…
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Teaching to indoctrinate or to educate?
It took me a long time to understand the difference between teaching (informing, enlightening) and preaching (re-presenting the Good News). It is unusual in our culture to find a church with leaders who are gifted preachers. Most churches we’ve attended have had teachers in the pulpit. Even those who claim to have a deep commitment…
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Like Being At My Own Funeral, Kind Of
A few months ago, my sister told me she was making me something for my birthday. She does seem to enjoy handyman-type projects like replacing toilets, but I never figured her for a crafter. Her gift box arrived last week, and a CD and flash drive of this 5 minute, 29 second video was inside:…
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Let it begin with me…
I spend a lot of time online. It is poach-an-egg-on-the-windshield hot outside. Combine the two, and it is entirely possible that my perceptions of today’s overheated rhetoric about the Supreme Court’s 5-4 ruling upholding the individual mandate in the national healthcare bill may be warped. Today’s polarized rantfest of despair or gleeful celebration (pick one)…
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Piper, Israel and me
This week, Christianity Today’s website featured the first round of volleys between David Brickner, the head of Jews for Jesus and John Piper, author and pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis. The question being debated is “Do Jews Have A Divine Right To Israel’s Land?” Here is Brickner’s post, here’s Piper’s response. The question…