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Could I do What They Do?

Recognizing this tendency to limit myself, I prayed, asking God to show me places I’d been holding back. I prayed for the courage I knew I’d need to respond in faith. Teresa says, “Fear distorts knowledge of self…And so I say, my friends, let us set our eyes on Christ…then self-knowledge will not make us timid or cowardly."
February 5, 2024
Reviews

The Great Dechurching: Who’s Leaving, Why Are They Going, and What Will It Take to Bring Them Back?

Despite some qualms about theological language and recognizing that this is not a Pew Research or Gallup study with in-depth explanations of social causality, I came away from reading this book with a better understanding of what has happened in the past twenty-five years, and with hope for the future because God is presently at work, even amid the Great Dechurching.
January 31, 2024
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Can We Keep from Singing?

Resurrection is not only a belief; it is also a practice. We can resurrect spaces of mentoring, spaces of encouragement, spaces of self-care, spaces of leaning on one another as a church. We can learn important phrases like, “Pastor, how may I pray for you?” Elders can learn to say, “Pastor, you need to take a week off.” Jesus won’t abandon us when the pastor is gone and will still be Lord when the pastor returns. We can see to…
January 29, 2024
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The Thing With Feathers

What came clear to me as I worked on this book is that as much as throughout my career I have held up theology as essential, there is so much bad theology out there about why traumatic events happen and what God is supposedly accomplishing through these events that I believe we’ve reached a tipping point where we just need to keep our mouths shut and simply love people instead of offering explanations for the unexplainable.
January 22, 2024
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Promoting the thriving and belonging of nonbinary and gender diverse people in our communities and families

While there is a diversity of opinion across our theological circles, research on mental health, spirituality, and well-being can guide us toward promoting the thriving and belonging of the nonbinary and transgender people within our homes, school, and faith communities. I experience a deep joy and abiding peace when I imagine an inclusive kingdom with a wide table of welcome. I’ve had glimpses of this in the here and now, and these snippets provide me with a strong motivation to…
January 15, 2024
Reviews

Is Math Real? How Simple Questions Lead Us to Mathematics’ Deepest Truths

Students who ask questions about why math is the way it is, rather than seeing math as a collection of known facts to be memorized, are told implicitly or explicitly that they are not “math people.” Many of them internalize this message, stop asking questions, and learn as little math as possible, avoiding careers that require the use of mathematics and sometimes passing erroneous (and harmful) messages about mathematics on to their children. In Is Math Real? How Simple Questions…
January 10, 2024
Featured

Our 19-7 Bridge

It’s a long way from a short bridge on the Illinois Waterway to contemplation about synodical decisions on sexuality. We all seek connections to God’s truth the best we can. For me, this story about a bridge helped me think about the complex tension between tradition and change. One hard truth is that we all have 19-7 bridges in our lives.
January 8, 2024