Mike Woodruff is senior pastor of Christ Church in Lake Forest, IL.  He has served in that capacity since 2003.  Healthy and fitness focused, Mike had a freak accident which upended the trajectory of his life. The following interview is conducted by David George Moore.  Dave blogs at www.twocities.org. Moore: Give our readers a sense of what happened that fateful day in the pool during your regular swim. Woodruff: The winter of 2014 was a nasty one in Chicago.... Read more

And they were laughing at me in my classes when I said in 2015 the Cubs would compete and in 2016 they could compete for the World Series. I’m not saying World Series yet, but what I am saying is that these Cubs are for real. CHICAGO—There is West Addison Street and there is Clark Street and there is Waveland Avenue. Somewhere within the grid that they circumscribe is the happiest place on Earth right now. It might be the... Read more

Both The Blue Parakeet and The King Jesus Gospel have been revised — second editions — and each has a new chapter. A new chapter on Junia for Blue Parakeet. A new chapter on revivalism for The King Jesus Gospel. I’m grateful Zondervan brought these books out with this new material. Read more

Jack Levison: How do we prep for something as important as Pentecost? First, we take care of business that might get between us and the work of the Holy Spirit. That’s what Jesus’ earliest followers did. When Jesus left, an angel barked, “Why do you just stand here looking up at an empty sky?” “So they left the mountain,” the story says, “and returned to Jerusalem,” to “the upper room they had been using as a meeting place.” When they... Read more

By John Frye: Preaching and Love Seared into my memory is a bad sermon I heard once. I cannot get past the glaring contradiction of the communicator’s words and his facial expression and hand gesture. I see a man shaking his fist at the congregation, speaking through gritted teeth and with red-faced anger, bellowing, “God loves you! Loves you so much!” The content of what I heard and what I saw plus how I heard it dramatically cancelled each other out.... Read more

Nicholas Kristof essayed in the NYTimes that universities are not only havens for progressive and liberal thought but also places that alienate conservatives, especially evangelical Christians, and there is a hiring and empowering bias against conservatives, evangelicals, republicans, and Christians. In the following excerpt from Neil Gross we see his response to an interview question — a fairly standard, laissez faire narrative of how universities actually operate. Substitute one word for “left” or “liberal” (in bold italics below in his response)... Read more

Harvard: Which leads to a simple question: But for the Games, would anyone recommend sending an extra half a million visitors into Brazil right now?  Of course not: mass migration into the heart of an outbreak is a public health no-brainer.  And given the choice between accelerating a dangerous new disease or not—for it is impossible that Games will slow Zika down—the answer should be a no-brainer for the Olympic organizers too.  Putting sentimentality aside, clearly the Rio 2016 Games must... Read more

We worship the same God. We are in the midst of a series of posts on the book of Genesis, considering a number of different commentaries. In the primeval history of Genesis 1-11, as indeed in much of Genesis, God is the primary actor. Genesis isn’t so much a story of human origins or the origins of Israel as it is a story of God’s mission. The origins of God’s work with his people. Because of this the most important... Read more

By Jovan Barrington Share Good Stories – A Better Way to Inspire “If we don’t have good stories then what are we doing here?” This is the mantra we use as a church staff to open up each of our staff meetings. We are inspired by good stories and we all want to be a part of something that is creating narratives that we are excited to share. I believe that for most churches there is something good that God... Read more