“Steps To Peace With God”, a variation of the “Four Spiritual Laws” tract so popular in the 1970’s, was laying on the dining room table when 18 year-old Bill picked it up and began thumbing through it. His mom had recently started attending a neighborhood Bible study, and she’d occasionally drop a tract or two onto the table, perhaps hoping to spark a conversation with the fam about what she was learning. The little tract’s spare message spurred Bill to... Read more

and now…there is time to sit on a swing next to a little one and listen for the sound of what comes next. I’ll let you know what I hear. Transition in progress. More to come. Photo courtesy of my talented son Jacob Van Loon, photographer and illustrator extraordinare. Read more

Intercessors who attend liturgical churches – this question is for you: As part of our Sunday morning liturgy, we have a time for guided corporate prayer. A person from the congregation leads us in praying for the needs of leaders, the congregation, the nations of the world. The scripted prayers read by the leader are general, focusing us on a particular category. There is time immediately following each general prayer for people in the congregation to pray a brief prayer... Read more

In honor of International Women’s Day, uber-blogger Julie Clawson has invited faith bloggers to post something about the impact women in the Bible have had on the kingdom…on each one of us. My story comes from my first book, Parablelife: Living the stories Jesus told in real time, and though this woman described below resides solely in a story Jesus told, she is as real to me as the couch on which I’m sitting as I type these words. THE... Read more

“These troubling economic times are an unprecedented opportunity for the Gospel.” This sentiment bugs me. And I think I have figured out why. I have been hearing variations of these words for the last few months. It is true that as our culture’s false gods of materialism, greed and pride are being exposed as modern-era golden calves, many people are asking different questions about God and life than they may have asked before. The recession (which appears likely to be... Read more

I’d been driving around with the box for the last few days. It was a gray shoebox, imprinted with wedding words on the cover, and decorated with a sheer white wire ribbon. “Can you be there at 10 a.m. on Saturday, and give this box to her?” I assured the focused young man that I was on mission. I’d be there. The drop point was a deserted dog park near the Lake Michigan shore. I was one link in a... Read more

Once upon a time, a group of friends got together in a living room to pray, to sing, and to have a meal together. Their community was contagious. Others began to join them until the living room was packed to discomfort each time they gathered. Eventually, the friends realized they needed to rent a more public space for their gatherings. It was a Big Adventure with Jesus as they inhabit the auditorium, 3 classrooms and a hallway (for the nursery)... Read more

A couple of years ago, I was contracted to write a book which would be a part of a series targeted at skeptics. My subject matter was the church; the book’s title is The Church For Skeptics: A Conversation For Thinking People. The publishing biz is going through the same painful contractions the rest of the economy is experiencing. As a result, this book has had quite a journey on its way to being born. The wait continues as the... Read more

Though I’m fighting a serious case of respiratory illness, I wanted to share one of the most profound images of our recent trip to Israel. Just a few hours after we landed in Israel, Bill and I had made our way to the Western Wall, the holiest site in Judaism. We separated, as men and women have separate areas in which they’re asked to come to the wall, and spent time in prayer and lots of observation. Orthodox Jews predominated... Read more

“When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.”– Luke 7:37-38 Her passion was her identity, wasn’t it? She’d lived a “sinful life”. The wild in those words... Read more