Culture
What’s going on, who we are, and what the big deal is.
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What I Heard Phyllis Say
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4 min read
At the end of last week’s Emergence Christianity conference (#EC13) there was a confusion. Phyllis Tickle, the conference keynote speaker, who presented her work on Emergence Christianity throughout, made a couple of controversial statements. Julie Clawson makes a good accounting for them here. However, I heard her differently. First, I will state that I…
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Before I begin, I need to give a whole bunch of caveats. First, this is not only ridiculously basic, but inappropriately basic. The subject is too big to cast in just a few sentences. Second, you should probably just go out and buy Phyllis Tickle’s book of the same name and read it yourself. Third, I have…
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How the Grinch Stole this Christmas
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4 min read
or Guns, Grinch, and Faith My wife loves that her two favorite Christmas specials are also our daughter’s. She loves A Charlie Brown Christmas and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and it isn’t really Christmas until we’ve watched them both. And now, watched them at least a half dozen times each. A few weeks ago,…
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Advent and Apocalypse
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4 min read
I have been writing and announcing Advent for a few weeks now. I’ve described the primary way the church imagines the season is through the lens of hopeful expectation. Until Sunday, I had refrained from discussing the church’s other focus. That perhaps this season is less about retelling the story of Jesus’s first coming and…
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Welcome to Advent!
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3 min read
When I was young I used to collect comics. This was long before I could go to a comic shop and order specific titles and have them set aside for me. I would go to Waldenbooks, 7-11, and the Country Cupboard and see what issues they had. I didn’t keep track of when the last…
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More Christian Than Christians
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3 min read
A year ago when the Occupy Wall Street movement developed, it was easy to recognize a correlation between the church’s mission and #OWS’s. It’s participants were attempting to forge a different way of gathering that was egalitarian and grass roots. It’s decision making was communal and encouraged a type of shared leadership most churches can…