A Positive Women’s Ministry Story

Last updated on: June 10, 2015 at 10:37 am By Michelle Van Loon

An update from the Women’s Ministry front: I’ve been at pastel tables featuring tea cups and doilies, making small talk with church ladies. I’ve gone to women’s “retreats” that were nothing more than glorified teachfests with a side of craft projects, teary testimonies and awkward ice-breaker activities. I’ve been a part of women’s Bible study groups that have been a reader response echo chamber: “What do you think this verse says?”/”I don’t know. What do you think it says?”/”The notes... Read more

Taken By A Trip

Last updated on: June 4, 2015 at 1:16 pm By Michelle Van Loon

People don’t take trips, trips take people. – John Steinbeck As we returned to Chicago after two and a half strange and grueling days that began with a knock on our 6th floor hotel door in Haifa and ended with us staggering out of the airport in a stupor when we finally landed in Chicago, I realized that the trip that perhaps God most wanted me to take occurred during the final four hours. The journey began with those door-knockers: two... Read more

Bring It To Light

Last updated on: May 31, 2015 at 9:59 am By Michelle Van Loon

My husband and I left the US for Israel on May 21. In the span of the 10 days we’ve been here, I’ve been following a string of excruciating stories from the Evangelical world that have included the exposure of incest/abuse/coverup happening within America’s favorite Bill Gothard poster family, the Duggars; the tale of legalistic spiritual abuse of a woman who divorced her pedophile husband by the leadership of Village Church, pastored by Acts 29 head Matt Chandler (who did offer an... Read more

Review: Lessons In Belonging From A Church-Going Commitment Phobe

Last updated on: May 20, 2015 at 6:05 pm By Michelle Van Loon

I used to believe there was something deeply flawed about me because I’ve been a part of a number of different churches over the last four decades. Between the pastors who shamed people for being church-hopping consumers and some congregants I’ve met along the way who were able to stick with a church for life, no matter how dysfunctional it was, I chalked up my own rolling-stone resume to some deeply flawed part of my character. Not any more. This... Read more

When The Heart Waits: Chapter 4

Last updated on: May 14, 2015 at 8:36 pm By Michelle Van Loon

“Without maps and signposts, people search for their inner home in the wrong places: in professional success, material status, institutions, person, pleasure, and on and on. But none of these can be home. We end up spiritual refugees.” – Sue Monk Kidd I’m blogging through Sue Monk Kidd’s 1990 book on midlife transition, When The Heart Waits: Spiritual Direction For Life’s Sacred Questions. (Click here for earlier posts in the series.) Chapter 4 is called “Crisis As Opportunity”, which sounds... Read more

Blessed Are The Angsters

Last updated on: May 7, 2015 at 3:20 pm By Michelle Van Loon

Ed Stetzer wrote a helpful post called “Missional Angst and Western Church Norms” about the shift in the church away from consumer-driven models of ministry. He noted that some are being called out of existing churches to live their faith in more organic ways (the Radicals), others are choosing to stay put and tweak from within the organization (the Conservatives), and a third group are the Critics.He describes the latter group this way: “…church consultants, authors, professors, etc.—can be professional church ‘angsters.’... Read more

No Lido Deck On The S.S. Prodigal

Last updated on: May 3, 2015 at 3:56 pm By Michelle Van Loon

This is hell week for those who are grieving the loss of a mother or child. Greeting card companies, florists, jewelers and kitsch vendors urge us to celebrate the mothers in our lives. School children across America are making crayoned cards to gift to their mamas this Sunday. Churches have mothers stand for a round of applause or pass out carnations to adult women as they leave the service. Though some churches have grown more sensitive to the fact that Mother’s Day... Read more

Marking Time

Last updated on: April 14, 2015 at 11:45 am By Michelle Van Loon

When we were in high school, we’d compare notes about everything from boys to menstrual cycles to math homework. Of the six of us girls, five of us were brand-new followers of Jesus. We learned something about walking with him by following each other. For one brief moment in time, we were even all enrolled at the same state university. When I got engaged, my girlfriends told me I was getting married “first”. We were in the habit of measuring ourselves... Read more

Why We Have To Stop Telling Jewish Jokes

Last updated on: April 8, 2015 at 4:14 pm By Michelle Van Loon

Sometimes it takes a while for a bad punchline to sink in. To wit, after a handful of comedian (to use the term loosely) Trevor Noah’s cringe-worthy anti-Semitic, misogynist tweets from 2009 surfaced about a week and a half ago. Last night, “The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart spoke out in support of Noah, who is slated to replace Stewart on the Comedy Central show later this year. But Noah still faces several comedy critiques. On Wednesday, the American Jewish Congress launched an... Read more

Selling Vacuums, Giving Away Parting Gifts, and Pantomiming The Gospel

Last updated on: April 7, 2015 at 7:08 pm By Michelle Van Loon

A book by a Catholic priest who journeyed to Tanzania to bring the gospel to the Masai gave me a new way to think about evangelism that goes beyond the models I’ve seen in action. These models have borne a passing resemblance to either 1950’s door-to-door vacuum cleaner sales, game shows featuring lovely parting gifts, or encoded Christian mime performances. Father Vincent J. Donavan journeyed to Tanzania to during the 1960’s and 1970’s bring the gospel to the Masai people.... Read more