All Posts By

Steve Mathonnet-VanderWell

Blog

A CO Hero

On Veterans Day last year, Pete Peterson came to mind. Scrolling through social media, I saw all sorts of photos of fathers and grandfathers in

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Blog

Joe Biden’s Age

I turned 65 yesterday. Earlier this month I joined the very popular and successful government-run national healthcare plan. Thank you! This landmark birthday has caused

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Blog

Stand up

One person was rather noticeable at my mother’s funeral. He was a young Black man — the only one there. Afterward, I introduced myself. He

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Blog

2023 by the numbers

Is everything ultimately quantifiable?  Much as I hate to admit it, there is a little part of me that fears this question will someday become

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Blog

Don’t Be an Advent Snob

Was it this year’s unusual calendar? Or maybe it’s that I’m now retired from the pastorate? But it seemed like Christmas mirth and zaniness had

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Blog

Welcome to Coon Rapids

Welcome to Coon Rapids, Iowa. And why did my visit there remind me of the American church? I was in Coon Rapids last August to

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Blog

Pastors’ Appreciation Month

I always appreciated not receiving much appreciation during Pastors’ Appreciation Month. Invented by the sellers of greeting cards and trinkets, pushed by “Christian” media, it’s

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Blog

Driestarren — Three Stars

No one has ever called me a Kuyperian, and I’m okay with that. Then Kuyper scholar par excellence and RJ blogger, Jim Bratt, mentioned Kuyper’s driestarren

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Articles

The Oberlin Option

American Utopias — Shakers, Mormons, Oneida. Can a “city on a hill” also be a sending, transformative agent? Oberlin tried. From The Anxious Bench.

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