The bodily motions of worship—singing, raising your hands, kneeling, closing your eyes—shape us significantly, even when we don’t feel like they are.
Technology and its Implications for our Future
Technology can connect us to anyone and anything with just a few clicks. But what about our connection to the physical world? What about being present in the glorious lands and spaces we inhabit?
Our Creative Impulse Through the Lens of Eternity
Ingrained within us is a desire to take the raw materials of God’s gracious gifts — colours, textures, language, emotions, to name a few — and try to make something that speaks truth, brings healing or facilitates worship.
Ordering The Chaos Through Good Work
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.” Genesis 1:1-3 Work. It’s hard sometimes […]
Every Tribe, Tongue, and Nation
Revelation 7:9: “After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb…” I grew up in the suburbs of the American heartland in the WASP-iest of WASP-y neighbourhoods. I knew I was in the […]
DIY Spirituality
The primacy of the individual–the encouragement to “climb every mountain,” pursue every dream and create every identity as we see fit–is unmistakable in modern western culture. And the church has bought into it too. This is one of the reasons why evangelical Christianity in the west is finding itself so confused, so weak and so easily defeated in LGBTQ discussions, for instance. We’re […]
Meeting God on adventures abroad
And so it was that all were brought safely to land. (Acts 27:44) The Apostle Paul had a lot of travelling adventures, perhaps none more harrowing than the shipwreck episode in Acts 27. As Paul and other prisoners are being transported via boat from Caesarea to Rome, they encounter a fierce storm, followed by the […]
What does it mean to love your neighbour?
‘Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbour to the man who fell among the robbers?’ He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘You go, and do likewise.’ (Luke 10:36-37) For many of the Jews in Jesus’ day, one of the most unexpected (and unwelcome) aspects […]
Hipster Christianity, revisited
Why the medium of cool isn’t a neutral vehicle for the gospel Four years ago I published my first book, Hipster Christianity (Baker Books), which sought to explore the complexities and questions surrounding what happens “when church and cool collide.” I wanted the book to provoke discussion — which it has — and inspire critical thinking in […]
Money: a servant, not a master
“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” — Matthew 6:24 My grandmother was a deeply faithful Christian and the most generous person I’ve ever known. A few […]