A man in Ferguson, Missouri, holds on to a fence on August 15, 2014, at the site of a convenience store destroyed during rioting after the shooting death of Michael Brown by police.
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In an age of nonstop media that exposes us as never before to the world’s pain and brokenness, lamentation is an essential and even revolutionary act, one that the church needs desperately to reclaim, says a young pastor.
Sarah Killingsworth, left, hugs Mary Ann Slinn, welcoming her to her home for a meal to discuss entrepreneurship. As part of community outreach, members of Broadway United Methodist Church in Indianapolis meet with neighbors for meals and conversation.
Photo by Kelly Wilkinson
Religious institutions need not live out of a scarcity mindset. Our religious communities are full of the necessary assets to cultivate a culture of generosity, writes David P. King, the Karen Lake Buttrey Director of Lake Institute on Faith & Giving.
With their history of dissent and focus on the individual, Baptists can sometimes forget they are part of the broader church, says a Duke Divinity School professor. His recent book outlines an alternative "Other Baptist" identity, a community of contestation within the church catholic.
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Pastors often are profoundly uncomfortable talking about religious experiences. As much as we are attracted by the mystery of God, it also frightens us, writes a pastor. But is skepticism really the right response to Christians who want to share their encounters with the divine?
Photo courtesy of Grant Wacker
In the epilogue of his new book on America’s most influential evangelist, Duke Divinity School professor Grant Wacker recalls a visit with Billy Graham.
Our work as Christian leaders is to cultivate thriving communities that are foretastes of the kingdom of God. In this series of reflections, C. Kavin Rowe explores the Acts of the Apostles, which offers a picture of what the church needs to continue being the church.
God's people behave as if playing the final minute of a basketball game, stalling the action, because they are afraid. Instead, they should step out of the huddle and spread the gospel, says a pastor.
A stuffed bunny who has served to teach dozens of students how to perform the sacrament of baptism reminds a pastor that we never celebrate the sacrament in isolation from a history that begins at creation and continues into the present and on toward the new Jerusalem.
She never expected old hymns to bring "showers of blessing" on a hot summer Sunday in East Texas. But that's the power of music to connect us -- a gift of grace, says a Christian writer.
Five years after a breast cancer diagnosis that at first appeared to be an immediate death sentence, a theologian works to live in the space between death and resurrection.