In 1883, Emma Lazarus penned the words to the poem, THE NEW COLOSSUS, to be used commemoration of and as a fund raising initiative for the pedestal on which would stand the Statue of Liberty. Some of the words toward…
the next right thing.
Quite often, over the course of numerous conversations unfolding inside the circled wagons of wounded American Evangelicalism, there develops this almost liturgically repetitious refrain amongst the faithful: our best years are behind us. Whether it’s wistfully recounting the size of…
Life outside the womb
By Michael Ruffin I have been thinking a lot lately about the beginning of life, the end of life and the life that is lived in between the beginning and the end. Before we are born we spend several months…
Monks and mediation: what some Benedictines taught me about conflict
Seventy-five miles north of Santa Fe there’s a high desert canyon so ancient, so primordial, I half-expected to see pterodactyls in the sky instead of hawks as I steered my rental car along thirteen miles of single-lane dirt road. The…
Schools prime ministry locations for many churches, say leaders
By Jeff Brumley and Eric Eckert Churches eager to engage the communities around them would be challenged to find a better place to start than local public schools. Think about it, says Carrie Dean, co-pastor of Edgewood Church in Atlanta:…
Bumper sticker theology
By Russ Dean We live in a frightening world. Everywhere we turn there are reminders. There is violence in the streets; multiple killings seem commonplace and no place seems to be immune from the crosshairs of the lone gunman; our…
Friends in the Valley of Shadows
I remember it like it was yesterday. Except it was 2005, and it wasn’t a single instance. It was two years after I graduated, and I was living with two of my best friends from college. And, I wanted nothing…
disinterested religion + the art of unemployment
Occasionally, there are days-and even moments within days-when heavy clouds pull in front of the sun, blocking its light from view and casting everything in the empty parking lot outside my office window, in shadows. A few years ago, I…
Anchors Away
Not long ago I was sitting on a dock, watching boats scoot across the lake, when one of my wife’s co-workers started talking about her daughter. I learned she was in her late twenties, not too far removed from college,…