By: Dave Watermulder on February 15, 2018
One of my simple joys in life, after the kids are in bed and my wife is reading or watching one of “her” shows, is to go online and make travel plans. To research airfare and stopovers in foreign cities. To read about overland bus travel or the reliability of a railroad system. This is…
By: Chris Pritchett on February 15, 2018
According to William Cavanaugh, the world we live in doesn’t promote freedom but isolation. There’s nothing “free” about a market that promotes “autonomy” as it’s highest goal. Freedom is found in deep human connection, not in isolation. In his concise book, “Consuming Religion,” he makes four simple points: 1. In our free market society, we…
By: Mary Walker on February 15, 2018
You should not be surprised at my saying, “You must be born again.” The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it come from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit” (John 3:7-8). This is the problem of presence: that the…
By: Jennifer Williamson on February 15, 2018
William T. Cavanaugh’s book, Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire, offers a theological perspective on economics and challenges Christians to participate in the economy in ways that are congruent with their belief system. Boldly marrying the disciplines of economics and theology, the author makes a compelling case for Christian responsibility in the marketplace. In this…
By: Jim Sabella on February 15, 2018
It’s always been a natural thing for me to pray. I’ve done it my whole life or for at least as long as I can remember. There is a sense that God listens and responds when I pray. I listen for what I consider to be the voice of God guiding me…
By: Mike on February 15, 2018
William Cavanaugh’s Being Consumed provides some positive reflections on how to develop a God honoring, personalized, and theocentric space where the Christian can navigate life’s challenges near the periphery of economic life. This post will examine Cavanaugh’s Eucharist viewpoint and positive vision to determine if his ideas on curing globalism can help my research into…
By: Jennifer Dean-Hill on February 15, 2018
When I was 5, I remember asking Jesus into my heart with my Dad kneeling next to me leading me in the “Sinner’s Prayer”. When I was 8, my dad baptized me and prayed over me inviting the Holy Spirit to transform my life. When I was 16, I received a supernatural healing as my…
By: Jake Dean-Hill on February 14, 2018
Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire by William Cavanaugh presented an interesting perspective on our consumer culture and how Christians relate to it. The part that stood out to me was the chapter on attachment and detachment. In my work with clients in my counseling practice, I deal with the issue of attachment quite often.…
By: Jay Forseth on February 14, 2018
[1] There I was this week, standing in line at Cabela’s, feeling extremely guilty about my ridiculous American consumerism. Sure, I was participating in Cavanaugh’s “free market” system, “voluntarily” with no “interference” from others, and under no undue “pressure” to make this transaction. [2] I was contemplating my “sacred canopy” and my lack of self…
By: Dan Kreiss on February 14, 2018
Is it better to be the consumer or that which is consumed? What if the answer is both at one and the same time? How might that even be possible and were it possible why would that be something to which people should aspire? In William Cavanaugh’s text ‘Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire’, he…
By: Shawn Hart on February 13, 2018
“The key to winning any battle is to identify the enemy.”[1] Perhaps this quote by Dave Ramsey was precisely the battle author William T. Cavanaugh was attempting to defeat when he wrote, “Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire” Within this short 100 page work, the author breaks down the world-view of economics and then pits…
By: Kyle Chalko on February 10, 2018
By far the biggest enemy of the American Church is consumerism, with a close second being that of selfish ambition. (Maybe it’s selfish ambition feeding our consumerism?) Vincent J. Miller in his book Consuming Religion: Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture explores the connection between consumerism and religion. Miller lays out in his…
By: Jason Turbeville on February 10, 2018
When I was a student in seminary the Texas state lottery was at 800 million. I was curious if the pastor at the church I was interning at would accept a tithe from this if someone in the congregation won the lottery. In my head the good that money could do through ministry was mind…
By: Trisha Welstad on February 9, 2018
This week I met with a student and former intern of mine for coffee. As we chatted, I asked her about whether she had found another church home since participating in the ministry at her internship last summer. Although she has looked into a few locations nothing seems to be a great fit yet. Some…
By: Kristin Hamilton on February 8, 2018
When I was 9 months pregnant and my daughter decided that 13 days was an appropriate amount of time to be late, every woman who had ever given birth decided to tell me how all of their kids had been right on time with hardly any trouble. Considering I’d already had two difficult pregnancies and…
By: Chip Stapleton on February 8, 2018
It’s Lonely at the Top….. but when life hands you lemons, try making lemonaide While most of us appreciate a little ‘alone time’, very few people would choose to be isolated from others, especially for any extended period of time. But just because we might not choose times of isolation (often called ‘wilderness’ or ‘desert’…
By: Jean Ollis on February 8, 2018
Have you seen the HGTV show Tiny House Hunters? Individuals/couples/families seek to purchase or build small homes, typically 400 square feet or less (and preferably on wheels). The Tiny House phenomenon is sweeping the nation and I’m feeling the tiny house fever myself. I’ve convinced myself that I could live comfortably in a compact space…
By: Christal Jenkins Tanks on February 8, 2018
I have found over the course of my short life that I have encountered moments in life that have caused me to decide to take a break or forced me into a place where I had no other options. In either of the ways in which I arrived at this place, the outcome has always…
By: Katy Drage Lines on February 8, 2018
Setting: Turkana, Kenya. It was late at night, the sky was clear & the Milky Way spanned from horizon to horizon. But I didn’t see it because I was crouched on the floor of our tiny kitchen, bawling. NW Kenya can be a quiet & isolated place, and that night I felt it more than…
By: Jay Forseth on February 8, 2018
[1] In the Introduction to Vincent J. Miller’s book, Consuming Religion, the author garnered my immediate attention when talking about the “voluntary simplicity movement” [2] and my mind immediately went to the “tiny home” movement as a worthy modern comparison. Many folks are weary of needless consumerism and the mindless accumulation of stuff, and are gravitating to…
