This Sunday I’m starting a four-part adult series on The Pietist Option at a church with special meaning for me: Central Baptist, in the Midway neighborhood of St. Paul, Minnesota. See, Central was the church home of my late friend and mentor, G.W. Carlson, who was the first and most important source of my interest in … More The Pietist Option for Baptists
Thanks to Rev. Johnny Agurkis for inviting me to preach yesterday at Cape Cod Covenant Church. Given some recent conversations in our denomination and the fact that it was the Sunday before Independence Day, the topic was an easy choice. I’m checking off a lot of firsts during my month-long visit to the East Coast. … More Freedom in Christ (Galatians 5)
Dear members and friends of the Covenant Church, Tomorrow our denomination will begin its 2018 annual meeting — one that many expect to be a landmark event, as delegates vote on new leaders amid intensifying debate about the ECC’s position on human sexuality and marriage. Part of me wishes that I were on the floor … More My (Love) Letter to the Covenant Church
Thanks to Brad Bergfalk, pastor of First Congregational Church in Litchfield, Connecticut, for inviting me to preach yesterday. It’s always a pleasure to preach in other churches, but especially in one as historic as FCC Litchfield. That congregation was organized in 1721, and the current building dates to 1829. My favorite radio station is called … More A New Song (Psalm 96)
Greetings from Virginia, where I’m commencing my summer travels on the East Coast! It’s my first big Lindbergh biography research trip: a few days this week at the Library of Congress, then several weeks in the main Lindbergh Papers at Yale University. But while I’m in a different part of the country working on my … More The Pietist Option Hits the Road
My denomination has its share of problems, but two things about the Evangelical Covenant Church make me hopeful for its future. First, it has generally done better than any other American church body at living out the “Pietist option” that Covenant pastor Mark Pattie and I sketched last year, in a book by that name … More The Pietist Option for a Multiethnic Church
Hard to believe, but today marks exactly six months since The Pietist Option: Hope for the Renewal of Christianity, my book with Mark Pattie, officially came out. In that half-year, The Pietist Option has sold far more copies than the other books I’ve been part of, been reviewed by Christianity Today (very positively) and The Gospel Coalition (less so), been given … More What’s Next for The Pietist Option?
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
Our Holy Saturday post comes from Jason Barnhart (Ashland, OH), director of Brethren research and resourcing for The Brethren Church. You can read more from him at his blog, Tethered Freedom. For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to human … More Harrowing
