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…
Christian stuff the world needs, part 2: Lose your life
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…
Christian stuff the world needs, part 1: Welcome the stranger
By Corey Fields We hear a lot about the declining influence of the church and decreased religious participation. I can’t help but think that this has been partially self-imposed by our tendency to let issues of individual morality and other…
Home field advantage
By Corey Fields We recently visited my wife’s family. Up where they live, you watch a lot of Yankees baseball. At one point they were playing a series against the Rangers in Texas. In one of these away games, the…
A humble plea: Go easy on your pastor
By Corey Fields I recently attended a retreat for pastors. The facilitator led us through times of worship and discussion about Sabbath-keeping and self-care. The need for this is pretty well documented. The statistics tag pastors with poor physical and…
The role of a ‘declining’ church
By Corey Fields It has been interesting to watch the buzz over the recent Pew study looking at religious affiliation between 2007 and 2014. Although I’m very thankful to Pew for their incredible work in pulling together the hard data,…
Beyond the thumbnail image
By Corey Fields On social media, posts always get better engagement when there is a thumbnail image to go with it. Ours is a distracted and fast-paced society, and the speed at which we scroll through Facebook may be indicative…