Category: christian life
-
Sitting Shiva with Jesus
I’ve always liked the Jewish practice of sitting shiva (shih-vuh) for a week after a funeral instead of cramming all of the goodbyes into a wake and memorial service or funeral. Shiva.com has a good working definition: Shiva begins immediately following the burial and lasts for seven days, ending after the morning service on the seventh day.…
-
A vaccine to innoculate against Prosperity-itis
Prosperity preaching is not just for TV preachers. Prosperity-itis has infected us all. One vaccine against it might be found in a very old school source. I appreciated this analysis from writer Brandon Peach, who explains that we’ve married American notions of the Good Life with the call to follow Jesus: God wants to…
-
Looking for your input: how do we talk about family in the church?
Typically, I don’t share bits of my writing work-in-progress because…well, it’s in progress, which means it’s not quite ready for prime time. But I’m breaking my own rule because I’m looking for some feedback on this snippet of a longer piece discussing the focus in the modern Evangelical church on marriage and family. I’ll first…
-
Reflections on “Reflections”
Yesterday, I attend the GC2 Summit at Wheaton College, hosted by the Billy Graham Center. The summit was designed to challenge church and organizational leaders to address sexual harassment, abuse, and violence in their midst. Speakers included some well-known names from the Christian community (Beth Moore, Max Lucado) as well as mix of others with…
-
Meet the Pelican Project
Years ago, I attended a women’s Bible study where the leader would read a few verses, ask us how we felt about what the passage said, and then read the notes from her pink women’s Study Bible to us if something seemed unclear. We had wonderful prayer times and warm conversation. But the “study” part…
-
Unburying that one “talent” I stashed
During the U.S. economy’s meltdown in 2008, I got on the phone with the financial advisor (let’s call him Frank for the purposes of this post) as the stock market was in what looked to a lot of us like a near free-fall. “I am watching the news every day and am freaking out,” I…