By: Liz Linssen on February 26, 2015
“The number of Christians in Communist China is growing so steadily that it by 2030 it could have more churchgoers than America.” [i] According to Taylor, the battle of our time is “between neo- and post-Durkheimiam construals of our condition, between different forms of religion and spirituality.”[ii] He explains how “the gamut of beliefs in…
By: Michael Badriaki on February 26, 2015
Humanity continues to be impacted by ideas from religion and culture. It is difficult to distinguish religious practice from the culture in which it emerges. Why pinpoint at the two categorizes and not others like banking, the modern biomedical enterprise and so forth? I believe that they are all inseparably intertwined but while studying…
By: Deve Persad on February 26, 2015
Over the last few months, it has been a privilege for me (on an interim basis) to be part of the youth ministry of our church family. One of the goals for my involvement has been to challenge our youth to develop critical and biblical thinking within the world they live. It’s been an exciting…
By: Miriam Mendez on February 22, 2015
Several years ago I attended a conference in Seattle, Washington that focused on Christian conversations with “the lost.” One segment of the conference included interviewing people who Christians consider “lost.” When it was time to interview one of the “lost” guests the organizer asked her, “How do you feel when you are referred to as…
By: rhbaker275 on February 22, 2015
It is a well know statistic that a large majority of the congregations in North America are plateaued and many are in decline. Plateau is defined as “little or no change … relatively stable level or position … a level of attainment or achievement.”[1] I am in my second year as a staff pastor in…
By: Telile Fikru Badecha on February 21, 2015
Ethiopia, a nation where diversity of religions and cultures was seen as a national threat, has now ensured the equal rights of all religions before the law. As a result, Protestant Christian churches in the urban settings received acceptance, whereas in regional settings Protestant minorities are usually excluded from social and economic life. In spite…
By: Michael Badriaki on February 21, 2015
Charles Taylor’s book A Secular Age is a remarkable and ambitious study which explores the world of religions dating back to the 1500 and they coexist in the present times for both adherents of faith and non-believers. With the ongoing discussions of religious affairs in the media and the swelling realities of wars surrounded by…
By: Mitch Arbelaez on February 20, 2015
Charles Taylor is a god! Well, perhaps I’m being a bit extreme. However upon reading his Magnus Opus entitled A Secular Age, I was once again reminded why I like his writing so much. Like a skilled wordsmith he’s able to take volumes of information and produce a literary treatise that delineates the historical record…
By: Bill Dobrenen on February 20, 2015
Family. The word itself can bring different emotions to different people, depending of their own experience. Why is it that many times children raised in Christian homes end up choosing to leave the sacred and enter a more secular existence? I wonder that myself, especially since I have two grown children who have experienced this…
By: Richard Volzke on February 20, 2015
“Science can purify religion from error and superstition;
religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes.
Each can draw the other into a wider world, a world in which both can flourish….
We need each other to be what we must be, what we are called to be.” (Pope John Paul II) The argument…
By: John Woodward on February 20, 2015
January 3, 1825, Robert Dale Owen bought the entire town of New Harmony, Indiana. His goal was to set up his perfect society based on “the principles of the sciences by which a superior character can be formed…and by which a superfluity of wealth can be created and secured for all without injury of any.”[1](59)…
By: Carol McLaughlin on February 20, 2015
We seem to be in an “age” where people give up something for a year or they do something for a year. In our recent past this has included a year of living biblically, a year of living like Jesus, and a year of biblical womanhood.[1] A recent incarnation of this “one-year” application was implemented…
By: Liz Linssen on February 19, 2015
“…the salient feature of the modern cosmic imaginary is not that it has fostered materialism, or enabled people to recover a spiritual outlook beyond materialism, to return as it were to religion, though it has done both these things. But the most important fact about it which is relevant to our enquiry here is that…
By: Deve Persad on February 19, 2015
“In our day the church building was used a lot as well.” That’s part of the conversation that I had with a couple last evening. They were visiting at an event we were holding in partnership with another local organization to help promote literacy among children in our community. This very kind lady said she…
By: Ashley Goad on February 19, 2015
(I am typing this blog on my iPhone with two thumbs, as I know we will not be to a wireless signal anytime soon. Please forgive my abrupt thoughts or crazy assumptions. I’m also typing this while on a 26-hour train ride from Moscow to Ekaterinburg! Don’t you want to travel with me??) The past…
By: rhbaker275 on February 15, 2015
I don’t recall the exact year, somewhere in the 1950s, there was a campaign to take pride in our country. As a child I recall the promotions, with public incentives, to do our part to “clean up” the environment. There were road signs everywhere which today might be considered distasteful, and distracting but at the…
By: Richard Volzke on February 14, 2015
Growing up in the 70’s and 80’s, I remember my first home computer – a Texas Instruments TI99. It used a cassette recorder as the hard drive and the TV as the computer monitor. I spent (wasted) hours of time programming and playing games. This first computer started my journey into the “I’ve got to…
By: Stefania Tarasut on February 13, 2015
This year will mark 70 years from the liberation of Auschwitz. In order to commemorate this important event I organized a showing of the 1993 Academy Award winning movie Schindler’s List at my church. For those of you who don’t know the movie, it tells the story of Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist who was…
By: Bill Dobrenen on February 13, 2015
As I read our text for the week, I thought about the now famous Apollo 13 mission transmission, “Houston, we have a problem.” The actual quote was, “Houston, we’ve had a problem here.”[1] Yes, the Apollo spacecraft had a major problem. And those of us who inhabit this earth also have a problem, and “we’ve…
By: Carol McLaughlin on February 13, 2015
This morning I ran/walked across the Narrows Bridge, beginning on the Gig Harbor side one mile later I am in Tacoma, then back again. Even with thousands of cars crossing it remains my favorite place to run and walk. Today was a pleasant trek, the wind was minimal, the sun was attempting to break through…
