Latest Articles
Everyone in ministry gets their feelings hurt
Congregations aren’t paradise. They’re communities in which we constantly hurt each other’s feelings.
The confidence to call shots (Romans 5:1-5)
Paul encourages his readers to trust an outcome they cannot yet see.
Prayer in the face of deep pain
It can feel like a feeble offering to pray, but I find it harder not to.
Chris Hobgood, Disciples leader and anti-racism advocate, dies at age 83
Hobgood was the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) general minister and president from 2003 to 2005, and founded the Disciples Center for Public Witness.
Faith-based activists win fight to clean up Los Angeles drilling site
The oil drilling facility is 130 feet from a church and 730 feet from an elementary school, reported a local coalition fighting for regulation of such sites.
Southern Baptist seminary nixes idea of reparations to black Baptist college
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has acknowledged that it benefited from the slave trade. A clergy group encouraged the school to give part of its endowment to a college started by people who had been enslaved.
Learning to love Iran
Delphine Minoui planned a weeklong visit to explore her heritage. She stayed for 10 years.
How Crusades-era literature shaped the idea of the Christian West
Jay Rubinstein places himself in the apocalyptic mindset of authors like Joachim of Fiore.
Botswana overturns law criminalizing gay and lesbian sexual relationships
Botswana, like dozens of countries worldwide, inherited its law on gay sex from the British Empire. In recent years momentum has been building to repeal those laws.
When daughters of fathers seek justice
Looking for God in the murkiness of human relationships.
Communing with the saints
At mass with my friend, I received grace through hospitality—without receiving bread and wine.
July 7, Ordinary 14C (Luke 10:1-11, 16-20; Isaiah 66:10-14; Galatians 6:[1-6], 7-16)
I want to be like Lizzo when I grow up.
Robert Alter’s Hebrew Bible translation is at once accurate and eloquent
Precision and beauty have kissed.
Populism and who it’s for
What does it take for people to get mobilized for the common good?
30 years after Tiananmen Square, China still restricting freedoms
Yan Xiong, who was a student leader at the 1989 demonstrations, sees Chinese people increasingly becoming disillusioned. Authorities have arrested pastors and placed more than 1 million Uighur Muslims into internment camps.
My synod’s efforts to help pastors with their finances
Meeting personal money challenges can’t be the responsibility of ministers alone.
What the Spirit makes possible (Acts 2:1-21)
We need each other—and we can reach for each other.
What pastors get paid, and when it’s not enough
Financial stress is harming ministers—some more than others.
What set Game of Thrones apart—and how it lost its way
The series was clear-sighted about power and misogyny, but it failed to see that vision through.