If you’re a long time reader of my work* you may be aware of the fact that not only am I an exceedingly mediocre person of faith, but that I get paid for my mediocrity in the practice of said…
If all you have is a hammer, what does a congregation look like?
Whether you believe it is an unattributed proverb, a saying of Abraham Maslow or Abraham Kaplan, many of us know the statement, “If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” I have long wondered what a…
The greatest gift (Part 5 in the series, God moved into the neighborhood)
Think for a minute with me about the greatest gift you’ve ever received. What was it? When I was a freshman in high school I received a ball signed by the 1996-97 Jayhawks. As a huge Kansas Basketball fan, that…
Christmas music continues
Yesterday morning in worship we sang three Christmas carols because, officially, the season does not end until January 6th. It is always fun (but strange) singing carols into January even though much of the decorations are gone and everyone else…
What I have said about torture since 2006
By David Gushee Follow David: @dpgushee In Fall 2005, while I was teaching at Union University, and two years before I moved here to Mercer University, the editors of Christianity Today magazine asked me to write an analysis of the…
The dark intersection of technology and sexuality
By John Chandler This fall, the Pew Research Center projected that we will see robotic prostitutes by 2025. In the words of University of Tennessee law professor and author Glenn Harlan Reynolds, “Terminator robots won’t stalk the earth massacring humans;…
Four New Year’s resolutions for every small town church
The time of the year for New Year’s resolutions has come. Most people make resolutions and end up breaking them quickly. Whether kept or not, the habit of New Year’s resolutions in our culture speaks to humanity’s desire for new…
Lessons from a suicide letter
Yesterday, 17-year-old Leelah Alcorn killed herself. She was a transgender girl who walked out in front of a semi-truck. After reading the suicide letter she left behind on Tumblr, I felt like I had to do something.
Love’s detour
“And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road” (Matthew 2:12). What would a Christmas pageant be without the three Wise Men?