community
A book that has transformed my life of faith
For the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, we asked writers to choose one formative book and tell us about it.
by various authors
What soldiers come home to
Can Christians display a life together that’s as compelling as war?
Immanuel is the agenda
What humankind needs is a love that sticks around, a love that stays put, a love that hangs on. That’s what the cross is.
Sunday morning blues
I support my church's requirement that retired clergy stay away. But nobody warned me how much I would miss all this—or if they did, I wasn't listening.
Alone among friends
For my money, John’s is the only Gospel in which Jesus seems really lonely.
by Kat Banakis
Megan Phelps-Roper's fresh start
Ordinarily I don't like to write about Fred Phelps and his family. When a group's main goal is to say hateful things and draw attention to itself, I don't want to help out with that project in any small way.
But Megan Phelps-Roper, Phelps's granddaughter, is another story.
The real "hidden prosperity of the poor"
When I saw the headline in the New York Times—“The Hidden Prosperity of the Poor”— I thought of something very different than what Tom Edsall’s commentary is actually about.
Edsall highlights an insidious and specious argument about income inequality made on the right. In essence, the cost of basic human needs has gone down in relation to income, while consumer goods have become cheaper and cheaper.
Lone rangers
Humans can't flourish without institutions, flawed as they are. Holding them accountable, and increasing their capacity, enhances human life.
What’s in a promise? Living by covenant, not contract
Monastic vows sound familiar to anyone who's been to a wedding. In both marriage and celibacy, we promise to be faithful.
In and of the world: Why there is no Christian ‘community’
The church is not an ark floating on the top of the waters. It lives and breathes within the waters.
Our life together: Four practices of healthy congregations
To build stronger communities, we need to get in the habit of recognizing what undergirds our relationships. We can't afford to take it for granted.
Freedom and accountability
Every pastor needs to address the issue of freedom and accountability. It's part of the pastor's role in nurturing a church community: neither a laissez-faire atmosphere nor a judicial one helps people grow as disciples.
More than sorrow
As pastors, we spend a great deal of time sharing in the
ongoing lives and adventures of our congregants and community members. We are
also called, literally, to come to love and suffer with them when
disappointments, disasters or deaths occur.
You can’t make this up: The limits of self-made religion
If we got all these spiritual-not-religious people together, they might find out that most of America agrees with them. But getting them together would be way too much like church.
Suburban search for meaning
Peter Lovenheim and Tom Montgomery Fate are both suburban dads on spiritual quests. In different ways, each of their books hits close to home.
United we sing: Music and community
Early Christian writers recognized music's emotional power. Just as often, however, they commended it for its powers of harmony--in both the musical and extramusical sense.