A Liturgy of Dissonance in the Times of COVID-19

As a global family physically distant – yet interdependent – Lord, hear our prayer… We feel the growing dissonance between practicing the social responsibility of distance and the kingdom (kin-dom) value of proximity. “Stay away to keep us all safe!” “Please come close, we have no ‘home’ to go back to!” Which is it? Is …

Conflicted Allegiance

This past Sunday, our community spent some time wrestling with the implications of “allegiance” in light of the 4th of July holiday. It was good, hard and so, so important.  As followers of Jesus and citizens of a nation-state, we have a dual allegiance to the kingdom of God and to the United States. Reality …

One Reason I Still Have Hope For The USAmerican Evangelical Church

If I’m completely honest, I’ve been really discouraged as of late. A major source of my discouragement has been the way the USAmerican evangelical church (a tribe I have identified with for most of my life, so my critique and exhortation will be directed there) has chosen to engage the world in this season marked by division, violence and trauma. …

Shrinking Our World’s: Presence in a Polarizing & Painful Season

The other night Janny and I sat on our front patio after getting all the kids down to listen to the sacred silence and debrief our day. We talked about our new neighbor hanging out in our yard to help out with the twins and reflected on the life of our little faith community while meeting another new neighbor who happened to be on an evening walk with …

Why I’m Giving Up Peace for Lent

The violence of our world seems to be spiraling out of control. Every news outlet is filled with the latest tragedy and for many, the violence has struck closer to home than they ever imagined. Sadly, much of the violence is being done in the name of religion. Religion – at its best – is …