By Leslie Leyland Fields My husband’s running for state office right now. I’ve kissed babies, shaken hands, handed out fliers, waved in a parade, edited op-eds. This national election cycle has become personal in unexpected ways. When the nation goes to vote on November 8, the fate of our own lives here in Kodiak, Alaska for the next several years will be decided as well. But there the parallels end. My husband is not calling for Alaska to return to... Read more

By Michelle Van Loon I was once told that the study of history doesn’t really make sense until we’re adults. Grown-ups brains have the ability to form connections between events, synthesize information, and assess meaning in a way that younger minds aren’t physically able to do. To be clear, this doesn’t mean that younger students shouldn’t study history. Familiarizing them with names, dates, places and most importantly, stories lays an important foundation they carry into adulthood when they can begin... Read more

In N.T. Wright’s newest book, The Day the Revolution Began, to be available in about a month and one can find a course being developed about it here, is setting the cross in the Bible’s narrative or story line (about which Wright has some refined remarks). But he knows that cross and atonement resolve a problem, and that problem is often defined as the sin problem. So, one must know the problem to make sense of the resolution, or at least once one... Read more

The new African American museum of The Smithsonian appears to be brilliant; can’t wait to go through it with Kris. Image Rising from the National Mall, within sight of the Washington Monument, is the majestic, bronzed aluminum-clad Smithsonian Museum of African-American History and Culture, which opened to the public on Sept. 24. Its exhibits take you from the basement and the depths of slavery’s despair, up through the challenges of segregation and the Civil Rights Movement and into bright and... Read more

O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we, running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Read more

By David George Moore. Dave’s videos can be found at www.mooreengaging.com and he blogs at www.twocities.org. Well, as I wrote in a previous interview with Tim Keller, “He has a healthy aversion to sanctimony and platitudes.  He has a low tolerance for simplistic answers.  Years of pastoral ministry in the hurly-burly of New York have given him a deep desire to articulate the Christian faith with integrity. Keller’s ability to frame old issues in fresh ways is a hallmark of... Read more

A wonderful week in Finland — Helsinki and the most of the time at the new seminary in Tampere — comes to a close, but with a life of memories. We are praying today for Simo and Helena. Ah Chicago and bike-friendliness: When it come to cycling, the second city is now the first, according to a leading bike publication. Bicycling magazine is set to announce Monday that Chicago is now the best bike city in the United States, unseating... Read more

By John Frye Recently Scot McKnight had an excellent post about pastors plagiarizing. I read the post and followed the comment thread. Many good (and bad) things were pointed out about pastors preaching sermons of other pastors. Almost all thought it was deceptive to preach another pastor’s anecdote or experience or sermon as if it were their own. That is outright lying. What in the USAmerican evangelical culture would tempt pastors to plagiarize? The unwise set-up of many pastors’ conferences.... Read more

InterVarsity press recently sent me a copy of a new book A Little Book for New Scientists: Why and How to Study Science by Josh Reeves and Steve Donaldson. The book is designed for Christian college, or possibly high school, students contemplating a career in science. It also contains insights in a short readable format that pastors, including youth pastors, may find useful. Despite the fact that I am no longer a new scientist, I immediately dove in and began... Read more

Priscilla Alvarez: Despite the heated opposition of the Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, and more than 30 state governors, conservative churches are welcoming Syrian refugees displaced by that country’s civil war. “The plight of refugees is very much in front of our churches right now,” said Russell Moore, the head of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. “Christians have a special affinity for Syria because this is a place that is very much part of... Read more