A large charter bus sat in the parking lot, exhaust brakes hissing. Several rooms in the conference center were full of large suitcases, most of them looking brand new. I knew they couldn’t have belonged to the small group of…
Joining the team: In politics, it’s time to become diehard fans again
In the United States, we love our sports. There’s something both weird and fascinating about it. I’ve never been what you would call a diehard fan (although the 10 years I lived in the Midwest was enough to turn my…
Keep laying shells for the culture to find its way home
I am a father of two. So, this past week, I did my parenting duty: I took my kids to see the movie Finding Dory. As a writer and a preacher, I should probably watch more movies than I do….
Facing the worst in ourselves, and learning grace
Lindy West is a writer who says that she is trolled constantly. “Trolling” is the practice of posting online in a deliberately offensive or provocative way to elicit an angry response. For West, nasty tweets and emails are a daily…
Bridging the gap between the heart and systemic injustice
If you could ask a fish, “How’s the water?”, the fish would probably respond by saying, “What in the world is water?” That was the observation of David Foster Wallace in a commencement speech at Kenyon College used to illustrate…
Going to bat — the only way humans thrive
I can’t think of many times in my life when I have felt as if no one would go to bat for me. In fact, whenever I tell the story of how I came to faith and later discerned a…
To such as these
It was the last place I wanted to be that night. It had been a long day, and now I was crammed into a hot and crowded school auditorium for my son’s school music program. I gave him a thumbs…
Polarization, public witness and the moral minority
Our increasingly polarized environment must not scare us away from proclaiming the values of the Kingdom of God. The Pew Research Center recently confirmed what my Facebook feed has made me suspect: the United States is becoming more and more…
Avoid thy neighbor?
By Corey Fields I sometimes attend neighborhood watch meetings. The idea behind such gatherings is a very good one. When neighbors know each other and work together, the neighborhood is stronger and crime rates decrease. Most folks I encounter are…
Stoking the flames of Advent
By Corey Fields The accompanying picture shows the sad state of our Christmas tree this year. It is a pre-lit tree that we purchased after our last move. It’s not so pre-lit anymore. When we put it up this year,…
It’s not about the ‘thank you’
By Corey Fields It’s a story that has stuck with me ever since I heard it. When I was in high school, I had a mentor and Bible study leader who went to Honduras every year with her undergrad students….
Christian stuff the world needs, part 3: Fear not
By Corey Fields We hear a lot about the declining influence of the church. Christians today, however, have a very urgent opportunity to provide what I believe can be the most powerful prophetic witness to some serious moral issues. This…