I love liturgy. I really do, there are few things in life that get me more excited then exploring how different elements of liturgy reflect the message of the Gospel. Some times my friends in the Evangelical world get on my case about my love for liturgy. They claim that following forms breeds dead religion. My response is that every church has set ways they do things, traditional liturgy simply establishes meaningful well thought out forms. I ran into this... Read more

Fellow blogger and Orthodox know-it-all Silouan Thompson recently pointed out the following story to me from Diana Butler Bass’ book A People’s History of Christianity: The Other Side of the Story. For those of you who don’t know Bass I posted a little on her a while back. I can’t say I’ve ever run into this myself, but I do think it’s difficult for many of us who come from churches of the reformation to square our view of the... Read more

A few weeks ago I was driving to Michigan from my home in Chicago. I was excited to see my family there, and also my wife who had gone before me a few days. I love seeing my family. There is no other group of people that reflect who I am. I am a little like my Mother, a little like my brothers, a little like my sister, more like my Father then I care to admit, and I am... Read more

A few weeks ago I was driving to Michigan from my home in Chicago. I was excited to see my family there, and also my wife who had gone before me a few days. I love seeing my family. There is no other group of people that reflect who I am. I am a little like my Mother, a little like my brothers, a little like my sister, more like my Father then I care to admit, and I am... Read more

I have heard of Stephen Mansfield for a number of years. He became well known after publishing The Faith of George W. Bush. Although I had never read it I heard quite a great deal about it. On one side I head voices condemn it as propaganda, and a revisionist account of American history. On the other hand people held it up as proof that there was a committed Christian in the White House, which was a good reason to... Read more

Here are some interesting figures from Mark Noll’s The New Shape of World Christianity: How American Experience Reflects Global Faith.: • This past Sunday it is possible that more Christian believers attended church in China than in all of so-called “Christian Europe.” Yet in 1970 there were no legally functioning churches in all of China; only in 1971 did the communist regime allow for one Protestant and one Roman Catholic Church to hold public worship services, and this was mostly... Read more

“Use a glass mirror to see your face; use works of art to see your soul”– George Bernard Shaw Contents of this Article Introduction History of icons Divergence in Art and Practice Iconoclasm in the 8th and 9th Century The Emergence of the Modern Era Lutherans and icons Reform Churches and Icons Anglicans and Icons The Radical Reformaton and icons Icons in the “Modern” Catholic church Icons in the “Modern” Eastern church Bearing the image of God in a Post-Modern... Read more

This video is pretty sweet…I’d love to hear what people have to say about it! http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=8896410&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1 Radical Marxist, Radical Womanist, Radical Love: What Mother Teresa Taught Me about Social Justice from The Veritas Forum on Vimeo. Read more

The first time someone show me the Liturgy of the Hours my first thought was, “you must be joking.” I couldn’t understand why anyone would choose to pray in such a complicated way. My Bible had one ribbon, this thing had half a dozen and the person had put bookmarks in it to boot. At that point my response was thanks, but no thanks. In the next few years I came to realize that I could use more prayer in... Read more

My wife Joan and I have been adjusting to life here in Chicago since we moved last fall. It has been quite a transition. I have been working towards my MDiv at North Park theological seminary. We are finding our place in Chicago and the community at at North Park. I have found a home at Resurrection Covenant Church which has been a source of joy for me, and has allowed me to continue doing worship ministry from time to... Read more