Yes, this is how George Saunders summed up his moral charge to the graduates of Syracuse: So, quick, end-of-speech advice: Since, according to me, your life is going to be a gradual process of becoming kinder and more loving: Hurry up. Speed it along. Start right now. There’s a confusion in each of us, a sickness, really:selfishness. But there’s also a cure. So be a good and proactive and even somewhat desperate patient on your own behalf – seek out... Read more
You and I gather as Christians to have coffee: Is that the church? You and I and five others gather to read the Bible: Is that the church? You and I gather to hear a pastor preach and we sing some: Is that the church? What does it take to move a “gathering” into a “church”? The Protestant Reformers seemed to conclude that the three marks of the church are when the Word is preached, when the Sacraments are “communicated”... Read more
The parables of Jesus summon us to the edge of the world in order to imagine a world that can only be called “kingdom.” In this world we have stereotypes, like the Pharisee and the tax collector (Luke 18:9-14, after the jump). In this imagined stereotyped world the Pharisee is self-righteous, hypocritical, unloving, and conscious that God is on his side. In that world, too, is the tax collector who, knowing his low status in society and his own sins... Read more
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From Brett McCracken, a Millennial, responding tactfully to Rachel Held Evans with the alternative: How about the opposite? Millennials: why don’t we take our pastors, parents, and older Christian brothers and sisters out to coffee and listen to them? Perhaps instead of perpetuating our sense of entitlement and Twitter/blog/Instagram-fueled obsession with hearing ourselves speak, we could just shut up for a minute and listen to the wisdom of those who have gone before? And for pastors, church leaders, and others so... Read more
Let your continual mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend your Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without your help, protect and govern it always by your goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Read more
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This is an old post about information some today are simply choosing to ignore: it’s been said too many times to pretend public speakers and authors don’t know about it. The best evidence by competent sociologists suggests, now hear this, that Millennials are not in fact leaving the church. Are today’s youth abandoning the Church? Is there cause for alarm? Or is the condition with youth in the church today about the same as always? These are questions that many... Read more
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