By Miguel De La Torre We are called by God to be good stewards of the earth. Unfortunately, racism gets in the way. Environmental racism, defined as the link between the degradation of the environment and the racial composition of the areas…
American folk religion
When I was in college, I had the privilege of spending a couple of weeks in Mexico, on a mission trip, as a member of something called a “youth choir”. A couple of pre-emptive answers to your inevitable questions: Yes, our shirts always matched….
Reflections on “The Way, Way Back” and why I believe in youth ministry
This week I had the chance to catch the new movie The Way, Way Back. In the film, the gangly and awkward teenage protagonist Duncan is having difficulty finding his place. His adolescent growing pains have only been compounded by his mother’s…
Even Westboro loves its friends
By Corey Fields A young woman described her experience of moving to a new community and finding a new church home. She wrote of how the church made an inspiring first impression on her: “Everybody was super-accommodating, bending over backward to…
Homosexuality and the Bible
By Luke Smith In the recent decision of the Supreme Court in United States vs. Windsor, the court struck down the federal law defining marriage exclusively as a monogamous union of a man and woman. I have been asked by…
Let’s play: morph your church into a museum
The long-range goal of many congregations is to turn their church into a museum. It is not intentional. It is unintentional. It is just that actions taken year after year migrates them away from thriving as a missional movement to…
On-the-job training
By Amy Butler Every minister knows there could be massive tomes written on the topic, “Things I Never Learned in Seminary.” This is not because seminary faculties try to trick us by leaving some of the essentials out of the…
On-the-job training
By Amy Butler Every minister knows there could be massive tomes written on the topic, “Things I Never Learned in Seminary.” This is not because seminary faculties try to trick us by leaving some of the essentials out of the…
They are your brothers
The news of late has been enough to depress just about anyone who longs for and fights for justice, fairness, and equality. We have seen states trying to limit a woman’s access to healthcare and limit her right to make her own…
Demanding a living wage
By Molly T. Marshall Fast-food workers in Kansas City have been marching, taking an “unofficial strike” from their jobs at Burger King, Wendy’s and McDonald’s, to name three of the worst offenders. Joining similar rallies all over the nation, they…
Angle of repose
Death is bigger than us. All of us. And when we brush up against it, we leave wounded—especially when we lose the ones we love (i.e. friends, family, etc). We leave hurt. Over two years ago my wife’s uncle died…
Thinking inside the boxes
By Bob Burroughs Every church has multiple boxes. There is the Worship Box. This box is very large, for it must accommodate a wide variety of people. The Worship Box often has “dividers” that are called such names as “Traditional,”…