-
·
Blurring the Lines – How Jesus Alters Expectations Of Justice
“Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!” As much as I don’t want to preach on this gospel today, I fear for the thousands of churches and church goers who will wrestle with such a tricky and troubling passage. And how many…
-
·
Why That Thing You Tell Your Pastor On Sunday Morning Might Not Get Done
1. My body got up hours before my brain. 2. For pastors, leading worship is exhausting. 3. And sometimes, so is coffee hour. 4. Maybe I’m running late because a small child crawled into bed and I had to pretend to be sleeping so that they’d get back to sleep before I get up. 5.…
-
·
How political should your church be?
It’s a simple question. Well, at least many of us treat it like it is. Not at all, we say. Separation of Church and State. A lot, we say. We are called to change the world. How we answer the question often reveals not only what we think of church and politics, but where we…
-
·
Watching By Forgiving Debts
There’s a single word in the Lord’s Prayer we often miss. Remember a few weeks ago how the disciples asked Jesus how to pray? He responded with a familiar prayer about hallowing, heaven, and daily bread. Then he says And forgive us our sins,for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. Did you notice? Jesus links sin and indebtedness.…
-
·
The Gospel of Nice
I made waves in a book group a few months ago when I said that the Gospel isn’t about being nice. Or kind. Or being “a good person.” Like Jesus says to the pious young man (who was doing all the right things to be “a good person”) you haven’t done everything. You still have stuff.…
-
·
The 2016 Presidential Campaign In A Nutshell
It’s Like Dinner. The 2016 presidential election reminds me of dinner. Namely the conversation around dinner. Like coming home and saying “What should we do for dinner?” And your spouse says: “Not spaghetti. #neverspaghetti” And you say “OK. We won’t do spaghetti. I’m hoping to hear what you actually want.” And they say “I’m really…
-
·
Inheritance Transformed
It feels like we live in a divided country. But nothing divides more than inheritance. It sicks brother against brother. Sister against sister. Inheritance is not the blessing of ongoing protection but the curse of future division. In my own family, I’ve seen family members force a sibling to pay a double share while a…
-
·
Why So Many Christians Support Black Lives Matter
You’ve seen the memes on facebook or watched the exchanges on television about the Black Lives Matter movement. You know its origin on Twitter and you know that a response sprang up just as quickly: #alllivesmatter. You know that somehow, a witness to the brutality of black bodies turned into yet another culture war moment…
© Copyright 2026. Powered by WordPress and Ollie