Why I’m Not A World Changer

Last updated on: August 19, 2016 at 1:21 pm By Michelle Van Loon

Recently, a friend of mine named Katie confessed her deep discouragement over her “failed” quest to turn the world upside down for God. She’d pursued a ministry degree from a Christian college and after graduation, secured what she believed was a world-changer job at a world-changing church. But then her vision collided with longstanding, intractable politics that had turned the congregation inward on itself. Three years later, mired in student loan debt and disillusioned by her experience, she left her... Read more

9360 Home Circle

Last updated on: August 19, 2016 at 7:53 am By Michelle Van Loon

It was the first house I remember, but I still wonder if it was ever really home. And yet nowhere else I’ve lived has ever fully been my home either. The duplex was a cookie-cutter match for the dozens of other houses in the neighborhood. My parents were the first owners of the house, built in 1963. My sister was nearly two and I was four when we moved out to what was then the edge of civilization. Cheap housing sprung up in a... Read more

Discipled By Calendar

Last updated on: August 8, 2016 at 7:14 am By Michelle Van Loon

Once upon a time – and for most of Judeo-Christian history following – there were no Sunday School classes or parachurch youth programs that focused on transmitting faith from one generation to the next. There was simply the kind of lifestyle God prescribed in Deuteronomy 6:4-9. Certainly other forms of apprenticeship, and eventually, more formalized forms of theological education, emerged over time. But those were built on the Hebrew foundation of practicing faith with family, in community. From the time of... Read more

In 99 days…

Last updated on: August 2, 2016 at 1:26 pm By Michelle Van Loon

In 99 days, this painful, divisive election will be history. Who will we as followers of Jesus be after November 8th? As of this writing, I have a number of believing friends and acquaintances who are supporting Donald Trump. I have a number of believing friends and acquaintances who are supporting Hillary Clinton. And some who are planning to vote Libertarian, Green, or Constitution. Others are planning to write in a name, or abstain from voting entirely. After November 8th, at least... Read more

Can These Bones Live?

Last updated on: August 1, 2016 at 7:05 am By Michelle Van Loon

Some in shriveling churches have prayed a form of Ezekiel 37:1-14 for their congregations. The prophet Ezekiel was given a vision of dry bones, and as he spoke in God’s name over them, God supernaturally reassembled them into a vibrant living body. God told Ezekiel that the vision was about the return from exile of the revived Chosen People to the land he’d given them. The appropriation of these words in prayer over a failing local church tends to signal... Read more

5 Yiddish Words For Christians: Video

Last updated on: July 28, 2016 at 8:15 pm By Michelle Van Loon

English is sprinkled with a few Yiddish phrases. Go to Einstein’s Bagels, and you use Yiddish to order a bagel and a schmear of cream cheese. If you trip over a crack in the sidewalk and call yourself a klutz, you’re using a Yiddish word to describe your clumsiness. 1970’s sitcom characters LaVerne and Shirley used the words schlemiel and schlamazel (inept and unlucky) in their opening credits, though neither woman was remotely Jewish. Sometimes a Yiddish word is just what the doctor... Read more

10 Favorite Time Travel Flicks

Last updated on: July 27, 2016 at 6:13 pm By Michelle Van Loon

I’ve spent a lot of time in the last two years thinking about…time. Though I’ve focused on Jewish and Christian calendars during the writing of Moments & Days: How Our Holy Celebrations Shape Our Faith, I also did some reading on the nature of time itself, a mind-blowing topic. When my finite brain got a little too overheated from thinking Big Thoughts about theoretical stuff, I would go organize a junk drawer or something. I also realized an entry-level way in... Read more

Requiem for a BFF

Last updated on: July 21, 2016 at 2:23 pm By Michelle Van Loon

Being the new girl in 8th grade was like walking over hot coals every day. All the other kids were a part of established cliques. Hormones and insecurity are a double rip tide that pulls under all but the strongest and most resilient of us during middle school. It was a life preserver to have Karen draw me into her circle of friends during a ski trip. Her clique wasn’t “cheerleader popular”, but they were a pretty cool group. As time went on, we cycled... Read more

Talk Amongst Yourselves: New Conversations

Last updated on: July 19, 2016 at 6:43 am By Michelle Van Loon

Does it seems as though civil discourse is on the endangered species list? When discussion is reduced to talking heads yelling at one another on cable news channels, posting inflammatory commentary on Facebook, or calling each other snarky names on Twitter, where is there space in our world to ask questions, listen to the experiences of others, and stretch both mind and soul? When my friend Melinda told me she was gathering a group of women for the purpose of conversation, I was... Read more

The Cost Of Listening

Last updated on: July 18, 2016 at 7:18 am By Michelle Van Loon

In the wake a week where Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, and officers Lorne Ahrens, Michael Krol, Brent Thompson, and Patrick Zamarripa lost their lives, I appreciated post after post on social media again calling for whites to silence themselves and listen to the experiences of African-Americans. The kind of listening that comes from a deep desire to understand is a crucial first step. I want to be that kind of listener. At the conclusion of those three gut-wrenching days following... Read more