If last year we celebrated Easter amid the physical death of a pandemic, this year of the COVID vaccine we remember Jesus’ resurrection amid the apparent dying of his church in the United States. Having hovered around 70% since Gallup began polling, the share of Americans who belong to a faith community is now below … More Don’t Look for the Living Among the Dead
By the time this week is done, something like thirty members of the Bethel University faculty will learn that their positions are being eliminated after 2020-21. And even if I don’t lose my job, it’s likely that I’ll still be affected indirectly by restructuring and streamlining of departments and programs. For months, I’ve been dreading … More “Nothing for your journey”: The Future of the Christian Liberal Arts
I once called Easter Monday “that forgotten day of the church calendar seemingly dedicated to, well, getting on with our lives.” This year, when nothing feels all that normal, it’s probably less true that Easter’s joy will “[dissolve] into the mundane, predictable routine of the workweek.” But under quarantine or not, we’ll continue to spend … More The With-God Life: Call and Response
“Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” No, I reflected two days ago: all I could do to mark Good Friday was to “imagine the unimaginable: the death of God.” This Easter Sunday, I woke asking myself another verse from that same spiritual: “Were you there when he rose up from the grave?” And … More The With-God Life: Christ is Risen!
Before we turn from Easter to the work week, I’ve got the privilege of concluding our devotional. Thanks for reading and sharing! So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in … More Living in Jesus Christ’s Future
As we wake to the Resurrection dawn of Easter, Mark Pattie (Lino Lakes, MN) brings our devotional near to its conclusion. Early in the morning on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. (John … More A New Day
If I don’t write a whole lot around here for the next four weeks, it’s partly because I’m busy editing Come Back to Jesus: A Lenten Devotional from the Readers and Authors of The Pietist Option. Submissions have started to come in from the 38 readers who signed up to join Mark and me in writing daily devotions … More How You Can Request a Free Copy of Our Forthcoming Lenten Devotional
Chris and Sam riff on trump, sabbath, nostalgia, and three other words. … More Nothing Rhymes with Gehrz (Episode 2)
This year our church’s Maundy Thursday service began with each person at our table drawing from a bag the name of a disciple. For the rest of the service, we’d then try to imagine the story from the point of view of that follower of Jesus. My son, for example, drew Simon the Zealot. Fittingly, I … More Pilate’s Holy Saturday
The texts, tunes, and traditions of Easter Sunday are so powerful that I sit in the pew and wonder how anyone could not at least take a chance on believing in the Resurrection. But this Easter, like every other, it took hardly any time at all to be confronted with the reality that our risen King … More The Resurrection Sunset
The Pietist Schoolman 