By: Jenn Burnett on March 12, 2020
Identity is both a now and a not yet. It is an unfolding narrative rather than a fixed entity. “[A] coherent, well-integrated sense of identity provides a frame of reference for dealing with questions about the meaning, purpose, and direction of one’s life.”[1] But the question of how that identity is determined and in particular…
By: Harry Edwards on March 12, 2020
Rebecca McLaughlin’s book Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the World’s Largest Religion is a breath of fresh air in the world of Christian Apologetics. It is refreshing in many ways but particularly for two reasons: (1) it is a written by a female; (2) with close ties to the UK Evangelical context. These reasons…
By: Mario Hood on March 12, 2020
In Confronting Christianity, author and Christian apologists Rebecca McLaughlin answers twelve hard-hitting questions that confront the Christian faith. The twelve questions are broken up into twelve chapters that form the book. McLaughlin, who holds a Ph.D. from Cambridge University and a theology degree from Oak Hill seminary in London, writes with clarity and conviction without…
By: Andrea Lathrop on March 12, 2020
Rebecca McLaughlin’s Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the World’s Largest Religion poses difficult enquiries for the Christian faith and offers thoughtful responses. Her hope is that skeptics would read it and be disarmed by the honest look at Christianity’s greatest criticisms. She is unafraid of their closer consideration and wholeheartedly believes Christianity remains the…
By: Rev Jacob Bolton on March 12, 2020
Dr. Rebecca McLaughlin gives us a fascinating read this week in Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard questions for the World’s Largest Religion. I actually read this over Christmas break and had outlined my blog post, making a marked, yet lively reference to Ryan Dunn of MTV fame. However, the recent COVID 19 news, and how the…
By: Chris Pollock on March 11, 2020
First Pain Summer Camp was a wonderland for me as a kid; it holds some of my first and fondest memories. The early 80s, I was free to fly. I wasn’t held back from any place, unless it was after bedtime and I ran like the wind everywhere I went. To the field to play…
By: Joe Castillo on March 11, 2020
The issue of power and leadership has always attracted my attention since 27 years in ministry; in fact, I have been in many leadership positions and seen firsthand how power unfolds through manipulation, the privilege, the rich, in the secular and religious environment. One of the most attractive concepts in the field of social sciences…
By: Greg Reich on March 11, 2020
One of the biggest benefits about living in the state of Washington has to be the ability to enjoy the diverse outdoor experience. Whether it is the beauty of our majestic Mt. Rainier and the Cascade Mountains or the many miles of sandy beaches, there is plenty to see and enjoy. Other than kiting, one…
By: Darcy Hansen on March 10, 2020
“Sweet Jesus, free me.” Five years ago, these words, birthed from Spirit, emerged from the depths of my being and were spoken into what seemed to be a dark empty void of space. But like the creation narrative, when Spirit combines with Word, new things happen. Over time, this open-handed, full-of-trust prayer has been answered…
By: Shawn Cramer on March 10, 2020
To imagine “that which could be” requires a new way of thinking – new wineskins. The status quo is a direct result of the current modus operandi, or to quote the oft used leadership adage, “Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.” It’s helpful to employ a Greek concept here: that…
By: Steve Wingate on March 10, 2020
This book is part of Walker’s Undefended Leader trilogy. It includes concepts that on many levels help leaders become more self-aware so that they can become a more comprehensive leader. Walker is not only an author about leadership, but he is also a clergyman, who finds in Jesus Christ the most remarkable example that “power…
By: John Muhanji on March 10, 2020
Growing and Living in Africa is an interesting life experience, coupled with different cultural dynamics from one place to another. African cultures have put a lot of emphasis on a boy child. Many parents would opt to educate the boy child than the girl child because they believe the boy would inherit and continue the…
By: Jer Swigart on March 9, 2020
Who are the leaders of the future? How are they formed? What is their relationship with power? And how do they make decisions? These are the questions addressed by Simon Walker in his trilogy compilation on leadership, The Undefended Leader. As both an Anglican clergyman and Oxford academic, Walker is concerned with the formation of…
By: Dylan Branson on March 9, 2020
In Simon Walker’s The Undefended Leader trilogy, Walker seeks to lay out various challenges found within leadership. In the study of leadership, the question is often trying to discern a definition of leadership that is both applicable and makes sense. Walker writes, “Leadership is about who you are, not what you know or what skills…
By: Shermika Harvey on March 9, 2020
One of my first encounters with the world of transgenderism was through the 1999 Oscar-winning performance of Hilary Swank portraying Brandon Teena in Boys Don’t Cry. It was a heart wrenching true story of the 21-year old Nebraskan trans man brutally raped and murdered in 1993 by several male acquaintances after his transgender identity was…
By: Wallace Kamau on March 8, 2020
As to How we got where we are on the current Transgender ideology and political debate, history may shed some light. While Wikipedia may not be a very credible scholarly source to quote, I have opted to gather some historical data on the transgender legislation that helps in informing how this issue has evolved. The…
By: Nancy VanderRoest on March 8, 2020
A number of years ago, I worked as a Director of Fund Development, Operations and Ministry at the Kalamazoo Gospel Mission. I was not the Executive Director, but I oversaw many of the functions of the Mission. I also became very close to many of the homeless individuals who lived there, and my heart wrapped…
By: Tammy Dunahoo on March 6, 2020
In 1987 an advertising campaign was launched by the Partnership for a Drug Free America organization. A man, holding up an egg, says, “Here’s your brain.” He then cracks the egg in a hot frying pan and states, “And here’s your brain on drugs, any questions?” The emphasis was the long-term effects of recreational drug…
By: Mary Mims on March 6, 2020
Working as a Children and Youth minister for the last ten years has been a rewarding experience. I have gotten to know the children of our congregation in unique and meaningful ways. I have listened to the hopes, dreams, and aspirations of our children as elementary students through high school, and now some in college.…
By: Karen Rouggly on March 6, 2020
It’s helpful to start this blog with some identifiers. I am a cisgender, white, middle-aged, female. I identify as heterosexual and I am married to a cisgender, white, middle-aged man. We have two little boys who are aware of their whiteness, but not yet aware of the privilege it affords them. These two little boys…
