“Has anyone seen Jesus? I know that he is around here somewhere. He is always with us.” Jesus’ parents were traveling home after the festival of the Passover (Luke 2.41-51). It was two days before they noticed that he was…
Christian, Baptist, Evangelical — two out of three ain’t bad
Recently, someone who presents himself as “religiously unaffiliated” asked: “Aren’t you evangelicals really just the Republican Party at prayer?” We are good friends, so I responded: “Who’s ‘you evangelicals,’ you none?” For those readers who don’t have cable TV or…
U.S. atheist population is growing — and needs radical hospitality, Christian filmmaker says
The number of atheists in the United States has “roughly doubled” since 2007, up to 3.1 percent of the adult population, according to the Pew Research Center. When combined with the rise of Americans who claim no religious affiliation, the survey may…
Is music a religion — and should the church be worried if it is?
If the fans of Star Wars and Dr. Who can have religions based on those franchises, then why can’t music be a faith tradition? That’s what country singer Maren Morris explores in her top-10 hit “My Church,” in which she…
The new God-fearers (formerly known as the Nones) and where to find them
The spiritual-but-not-religious subset of Nones haven’t given up on God (whoever or whatever they conceive God to be). Their search for the divine has simply broadened beyond traditional churches.
Comparing faith decline in U.S. with Europe, Japan misleading, says professor
Christians anxious about the troubles of the American church often look to Europe’s beautiful-but-empty cathedrals as signs of things to come. But a scholar who studies the connection between fertility, immigration rates and religion said American Christianity is at nowhere near the same place as its European counterpart.
Attendance bullying: it contributes to church decline, author says
Michelle Van Loon has seen several sides of Christianity as a child of the Jesus movement who ended up, for a time, in a fundamentalist church. So she can spot the difference between concern and control in a congregation. She…
6 essentials for churches engaging Millennials
While Millennials are less churched than most generations, data has shown they are no less spiritual. So why aren’t they in our pews? The longer I have examined this question, the more I’ve been convinced it is the wrong one….
Practicing resurrection with a new vocabulary
It is a well-known line from Wendell Berry’s Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front: “Be like the fox who makes more tracks than necessary, some in the wrong direction. Practice resurrection.” I have been thinking about this enigmatic statement as…