Category: Spiritual Formation
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The end of “friend”?
The morning after the 2016 election, I expressed shock and sorrow about the results of the voting on Facebook. I did not vote for Donald Trump. Someone I’d thought of as a friend for more than 15 years responded in anger by telling me, using these exact words, to “put on your big girl pants…
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At the end of the spiritual tether
A couple of high-profile people in the Evangelical ecosphere have recently released statements explaining that their faith is changing and they no longer identify as Christians. These announcements from author-turned-pastor-turned-seminary-student Josh Harris and pop worship songwriter Marty Sampson have provoked plenty of discussion in the circles in which I travel. Their stories echo ones we’ve…
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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.…
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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…
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Why Respond When You Can React?
One thing the current American political climate has revealed in many followers of Jesus how easy it is to react to events, and how difficult it is to respond to them. While social media fuels the problem, and highlights our flea-sized attention spans and hippo-sized thirst for hot takes, I believe it is also a…