Category: christian life
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Is It Possible To Think For Ourselves AND Pursue Spiritual Community?
At one end of the spectrum, we have the language of the Benedict Option, which includes a call to nurture a comprehensive Christian worldview in the greenhouse of a shared, committed faith community. At the other end of the spectrum, we have encouragement for believers to think for themselves a la the Bereans named in…
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What Do Your Kids Know About Communion?
I taught Sunday School for years. The experience taught me a few things. One essential lesson was to avoid any craft project involving glitter. I found glitter in my clothes, hair, and Bible for days after creating sparkly Noah’s Ark rainbows with my class of first-and second-graders. A word to the wise: no matter how…
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Evangelical leaders, I’m listening…
…but it seems to be a little quiet regarding a subject filling the headlines lately. There are lots of difficult things happening in this country. We sense we’re at a turning point regarding the ongoing pain of systemic racial injustice, “gotcha” travel bans, ICE’s new wave of aggressive immigration policing, or the stew of legal…
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Adult Baptism And Instruction
Is instruction in order to prepare for baptism a requirement in your church? If so, who is the focus on that process? If I’d been required to take a series of prep classes or undergo a formal catechism, I wouldn’t have been able to undergo baptism until I was an adult. I became a follower…
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Living The Jesus Creed This February
Hear O Israel, the Lord our God. The Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these. Readers familiar to this blog will…
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Evangelicalism’s Uneasy Relationship With Qohelet
The world-weary author(s) of Ecclesiastes seems to have been well-acquainted with privilege and power. This voice is named only by title (Qohelet*, often translated as “preacher”, he’s a sage who knows what’s what) and a “son of David” (a ruler in his own right and a heir of the king; some suggest Solomon, but Bible…