A couple of rules I live my life by: Use the lectionary as an opportunity to read scriptures that are easy to skip over. Don’t embarrass myself or anyone else by writing about sex. Normally, these two don’t come into conflict. But I’m writing a daily series of devotions, and today’s readings include some verses … More The With-God Life: Song of Songs
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through … More The With-God Life: Ambassadors
As I’ve restarted this series of daily devotionals, I find myself drawn more to the Old Testament selections from the lectionary than the gospel and epistle texts. Maybe that’s because I’m in the middle of reading Separated Siblings: An Evangelical Understanding of Jews and Judaism, by former North Park Seminary president Jay Phelan. Growing out … More The With-God Life: Commandments
At the end of the 6th century AD, Pope Gregory the Great launched one of the most significant missions in Christian history. “Do not let the toil of the journey or the tongues of men, discourage you,” he told the apprehensive monks tasked with converting the Anglo-Saxon people of England, “but with all earnestness and … More The With-God Life: Idols
On Thursday I forgot to go outside and catch a glimpse of this month’s first (of two) full moons. But looking at some stunning lunar images that night on Facebook made me think of Kendrick Oliver’s religious history of the race for the Moon, To Touch the Face of God. It’s named for the last … More The With-God Life: The Voice of Silence
Earlier this year, as COVID forced Bethel online and Minnesotans sheltered in place, I spent about four weeks writing daily Lenten devotionals. Spurred by a midweek sermon from my brother-in-law, the series was meant to help me focus on spending time each day encountering God in Scripture. I called the series “The With-God Life,” the … More The With-God Life: Part Two
Earlier this week, Hechinger Report published an analysis of the economic problems facing many colleges and universities in this country. Readers of this blog know that this isn’t a new topic (here’s a 2014 analysis of financial sustainability), but “with the added pressures of the coronavirus pandemic,” began Sarah Butrymowicz and Pete D’Amato, “the fabric of American … More How Christian Colleges Fare Under a Financial Stress Test
Earlier today I enjoyed listening to my friend Kristin Kobes Du Mez take questions from Minnesota Public Radio listeners about her new book, Jesus and John Wayne. That I’ve gotten to know historians and professors as gifted as Kristin is one of the many benefits I enjoy as part of the crew at The Anxious … More Can Christian Women and Men Be Friends?
Yesterday I shared some tentative plans I’ve made for fall classes, given that Bethel will be welcoming students back to campus in the midst of an ongoing pandemic. Even as I wrote, two of our peer institutions in Southern California — Azusa Pacific and Pepperdine — announced that they would move online for the semester. … More How Are Christian Colleges Planning for the Fall?
It was a year ago now that the annual meeting of my home denomination, the Evangelical Covenant Church, voted to oust First Covenant Church of Minneapolis, its senior pastor, and another ordained pastor for their affirmation and blessing of LGBTQ participation in the church. “As a Pietist,” I wrote after the annual meeting in Omaha, … More “Generous, Humble, and Free”: A Pietist Vision for the Church
The Pietist Schoolman 