Hope After Christendom

Last updated on: October 29, 2012 at 11:37 am By Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

Yesterday, October 28th, marked the 17ooth anniversary of the Roman Emperor Constantine’s victory at the Milvian Bridge, which he attributed to the power of Jesus Christ. This historical marker for the marriage of Christ’s cross with the sword of Empire–what we often call “Christendom”–is followed today, October 29th, by the saint day for an obscure Baptist from Southwest Georgia, Clarence Jordan. A few weeks ago, hundreds of us from around the country gathered to remember Clarence at a Symposium in... Read more

How to Preach the Gospel

Last updated on: October 25, 2012 at 1:25 pm By Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

One of the great gifts of my years at Eastern College was the beginning of a friendship with Chris Haw. We met during our first days on campus and immediately recognized one another as fellow travelers–restless spirits who wanted to both grow in our understanding of faith and figure out what we were going to do about it. As undergrads, we made a habit of diving into things before we knew what we were doing. We didn’t get everything... Read more

21st Century Freedom Ride

Last updated on: October 18, 2012 at 8:40 pm By Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

Whenever my friend Jim Douglass calls, I listen. Ten years ago, when we stood together in the morning sun outside a hotel in Baghdad, Jim hugged me and Leah, then stepped back and smiled. “It’s going to be a wonderful day,” he said. We were scared, and Jim knew it. But he was right. It was a wonderful day. In the midst of the tragedy that was happening all around, we lived the Good Samaritan story at a little place... Read more

Nurturing Communities of God’s Love

Last updated on: October 11, 2012 at 8:59 am By Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

Guest Series by David Janzen The Holy Spirit is planting a new generation of Christian intentional communities. For three years I’ve been visiting these groups and now, with the help of younger communitarians, the book about that movement that we’ve been working on together, is out. It’s titled The Intentional Christian Community Handbook: For Idealists, Hypocrites, and Wannabe Disciples of Jesus. Despite all this travel and research, at the recent Christian Community Development Association Conference (CCDA) in the Twin Cities,... Read more

Hope for the Future in Our Radical Past

Last updated on: October 1, 2012 at 12:35 pm By Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

While the headline news this weekend was all about the current presidential election and the upcoming debates, Leah and I spent the weekend down in Southwest Georgia, celebrating Clarence Jordan–someone who didn’t make the news very much during his own lifetime, but whose contribution was considerably more important than most people recognize. At least, that’s what former President Jimmy Carter said in his opening remarks on Friday evening. Before he was “involuntarily retired” from his work at the White... Read more

The Future of Faith: An Interview With Diana Butler Bass

Last updated on: October 2, 2012 at 12:51 pm By Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

The biggest religion story this past summer was the news that the institutions of Christendom are officially dying. For those who follow such things, the data isn’t all that new. It’s been coming in, from some streams of Christendom at least, for over thirty years. If you count heads, butts, or dollars, Christianity in America doesn’t seem to be doing very well. But those numbers don’t tell the whole story. Which is, in part, why The Everyday Awakening exists. Because... Read more

O Christ, It’s You Again?

Last updated on: September 25, 2012 at 9:13 am By Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

Benedictines tell a joke that gets at the central tension of Christian hospitality. “Our Rule tells us that we must greet every guest as if the guest were Christ,” a monk said to me once with a wry smile. “But sometimes when the knock comes at the door we say, ‘O Christ, it’s you again?’ After a decade of living in a hospitality house, sharing life with folks who’ve become homeless for one reason or another, I find the monk’s... Read more

Jesus on the Playground

Last updated on: September 21, 2012 at 12:32 pm By Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

For International Day of Peace at the public Montessori school my son attends, we had a peace parade this morning. Black, white, and brown kids followed a peace dove puppet down the street to a public park and sang songs about peace on earth. They bowed to one another, in Asian fashion, and pledged to recognize the force for peace in one another. It was a heart warming site on a beautiful fall morning. I watched much of this from... Read more

God’s Politics: Direct Action in An Election Year

Last updated on: September 20, 2012 at 9:00 am By Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

Regular readers of The Everyday Awakening know that one of the spaces from which I’ve learned to imagine a new society in the shell of the old is our prisons. I rarely talk about US prisons these days without quoting Jimmy Carter’s op-ed from the New York Times last year, in which he called mass incarceration our single biggest unaddressed domestic policy issue. As the presidential race rages on, I’m saddened to hear next to nothing from either side in... Read more

A Church So Old It Looks Like New

Last updated on: September 18, 2012 at 1:37 pm By Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

This post is part of the Patheos Book Club for Chuck Gutenson’s new book The Right Church: Live Like the First Christians (Abingdon Press). You can visit the book club site for more info on the book, an interview with Chuck, and a chance to join the conversation. 1700 years ago this fall, the Roman Emperor Constantine was victorious in his battle at the Milvian Bridge. He came away from the victory giving honor to the God whom... Read more