This week, the leadership team of Friends of Jesus DC began an eight-week process with the Tangible Kingdom Primer, a resource that helps small groups reorient around being sent to our local communities, modeling what it means to be a follower of Jesus, adopting a posture of humility and openness to folks who don’t share …
Read more “News Flash: Christians Don’t Have All the Answers”
I have long been inspired by Brother Lawrence, the 17th-century monk whose writings, compiled in The Practice of the Presence of God, demonstrate the kind of joyous living that is possible if we cultivate a posture of attentiveness to God’s companionship and direction in our everyday activities. Though he was never considered an important person during …
I am used to instant gratification. When I get hungry, there is almost always food around. When I am curious about something, I search the internet and can find an answer immediately. And when there is a task that I want to complete, I can usually succeed in getting it done quickly. I admit it: …
As a follower of Jesus, I feel called to share the good news that I have experienced. It’s news of a whole new way of living and being in relationship with God and other people. It’s a message of an upside-down kingdom, where all the supposedly important people of the world are humbled; meanwhile, the …
So often in my life, I have told myself that I was working for a righteous cause, justice, or even God, but far more often than I would care to admit, my most compelling motivation has been the surge of energy and affirmation from taking a stand, leading the charge or doing the right thing. …
One of the greatest strengths of the Quaker tradition is that each of us is encouraged to discover the risen presence of Jesus for ourselves. It is not enough to read about Christ in the Bible, or to recite theological statements. Our faith is not based in our ideas about God, but in our lived relationship withGod. This kind of …
Last week, I posted an essay entitled, Should We Give Up God For Lent? The piece was a critique of what I saw as some serious problems with the message of scholar, speaker and community-founder Peter Rollins. I took issue particularly with his campaign, Atheism for Lent, which provocatively asks Christians to give up God …