Sharing stories of failure can give people the power to succeed

Last updated on: September 2, 2015 at 5:21 pm By Guest Contributor

Honest conversations about failure help people realize that they are not alone in their struggles, and that can give them the encouragement to succeed, says a founding partner of Failure:Lab. This post was first published in Faith and Leadership. By showcasing personal stories of failure, Failure:Lab helps people “pave the way for change” by realizing they are not alone in their struggles, says one of the company’s founding partners, Jonathan Williams. Located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Failure:Lab stages TED-like events... Read more

5 kids’ movies that teach us ALL things we really need to know

Last updated on: August 31, 2015 at 7:15 pm By Guest Contributor

By Nathan Roberts 1. Toy Story III A spry student could probably write a whole thesis––or maybe even a dissertation, for all I know––about how the Toy Story films function as allegorical explorations of how we ought to live in a world governed by an unpredictable God. The toys are are our heroes, but the films are just as much about their Owner, Andy. If A Bugs Life presents a world in which the closest thing our heroes have to... Read more

A New Disney for a Renewed America

Last updated on: September 2, 2015 at 2:52 pm By Greg Forster

There’s a lot of talk these days about the fragmentation of American culture. While America has always had an important level of religious diversity, today we just don’t seem to have anything in common. We live in separate moral universes, and we seem to encounter each other only on the battlefield. Our imaginative worlds are also separate; everyone watches different movies and shows, reads different blogs, listens to different music. There’s a lot of truth to this. But there is... Read more

How are movies morally forming our children? We asked an actual 8-year-old

Last updated on: August 31, 2015 at 5:00 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

What are the best five animated movies you’ve seen that were made in the last ten years? I’d say the three Miyazaki movies: Ponyo, Arietty, and Up on Poppy Hill, and also Frozen and Brave. What do you like so much about Ponyo? It’s kind of funny, and I like how Miyazaki likes to put pollution in it to show people what can happen. Also I like [Richard] Wagner, and Ponyo has a little bit of Wagner in it, and... Read more

Meeting patients where they are: a further report from Grace Prescriptions (third in a series)

Last updated on: August 29, 2015 at 3:41 pm By Jennifer Woodruff Tait

Read more about the conference here: How to write a Grace Prescription 10 things I learned at Grace Prescriptions I’m almost at the end of my time with the roomful of medical professionals at Grace Prescriptions, and I have a lot to chew on (and I don’t just mean the chocolate: we’ve all been fed within an inch of our lives!) Last night focused on making the theological, Biblical, and scientific cases for the intersection of faith and medicine. Today... Read more

10 Things I Learned at Grace Prescriptions (second in a series)

Last updated on: August 28, 2015 at 9:23 pm By Jennifer Woodruff Tait

Read more about the conference here: How to write a Grace Prescription 1. Doctors and other medical professionals can actually be very friendly. While that hasn’t always been my experience in the exam room, let alone other people’s, everyone here has been extremely gracious and introduced themselves to all and sundry (including me, the “one of these things is not like the other” journalist). Everyone I’ve met seems to have a genuine concern for patients and a desire to help... Read more

How to write a Grace Prescription (first in a series)

Last updated on: August 28, 2015 at 6:25 pm By Jennifer Woodruff Tait

Well, for once there is no need to ask if there is a doctor in the house, because I am sitting in a room full of them on the campus of Asbury University in Wilmore, KY as an attendee at a conference called Grace Prescriptions, aimed at Christian medical professionals who are looking for help in sharing their faith in their practice. Over the next couple of days I hope to report in several times as we stand at the... Read more

Overwork Can Kill You–Literally

Last updated on: August 26, 2015 at 9:22 am By Center for Faith and Work, LeTourneau University

By Bill Peel The accident occurred at 11:04 a.m. according to the police report. A deafening crash and shower of glass and shrapnel had jolted me awake. I slammed on the brakes as a gooseneck trailer peeled away a good portion of the driver’s side of my car, barely missing me. My face stung and body ached when I climbed out of the wreckage. Thankfully, the driver of the pickup pulling the trailer was not hurt. That day God used... Read more

The Expendable Worker: Looking for Hope in the On-Demand Economy

Last updated on: August 26, 2015 at 9:37 am By Jeff Haanen

“Low, low prices.” With that motto, a generation ago Walmart took over the world of retail. For years Walmart seemed untouchable; they could consume any competitor with volume, price and efficiency. Yet in the past several years, some have questioned whether the Walmart empire has a gaping hole in the center. Forbes reported in 2014 that “Walmart’s low-wage workers cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $6.2 billion in public assistance including food stamps, Medicaid and subsidized housing.” Americans for Tax Fairness... Read more

“Don’t immanentize the eschaton?”: How to be a citizen of the Kingdom

Last updated on: August 25, 2015 at 12:53 pm By Edwin Woodruff Tait

Conservatives are fond of saying that one shouldn’t “immanentize the eschaton.” What else, I ask, is one to do with an eschaton? What they mean by this, of course, is that we should not use violent means to bring about a utopian society. Of course we shouldn’t. But the violent means used by Marxists and other secular seekers of the Eschaton are themselves decidedly means of “this age.” Marxists justify totalitarianism precisely because the perfect classless society isn’t here yet.... Read more