Michael Snyder’s Return Policy (Zondervan) follows the stories of three people who’d never typically connect with one another, much less change each other’s lives: Wally, a burned-out, grieving novelist; Ozena, a single mom of a special needs child and customer service rep; and Shaq, a homeless man with a serious case of post-traumatic stress disorder.…

It was the 1970’s, and as a refection of the times, we wrote our own vows for our wedding. I have copies of what we promised each other that warm Sunday afternoon, but for the life of me, I can’t remember a syllable of what either of us vowed that day. It is a good…

“As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and…

When I first began working at the Trinity Bookstore in 2004, Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz had been out for a few months and was just beginning to catch on via the best advertising of all, positive word-of-mouth. I grabbed it off the shelf, read it, lovedlovedloved it, and foisted it on all sorts of…

The holiest day of the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, begins at sundown tonight. (You can read God’s prescribed order for the day here.) On the tenth day of the seventh month, the high priest would disappear behind the curtain leading into the Holy of Holies to intercede for his people. Only on this day each…

What makes the Church dangerous? In no particular order:1. Love2. Rabid intentionality about reflecting the risen Christ in deed and word, in that order3. Signs and wonders4. Communion5. Meaningful spiritual friendships6. Learning put into practice7. Prayer8. Its children and teens9. Gracious countercultural lifestyle10. Corporate worship as the starting line11. Generosity12. Service/justice13. Mess14. TruthThe more of…