Approaching Revelation With A Different Perspective

I've always had a vexed relationship with Revelation, and I think most of the church does. Over the centuries believers have treated this book of the Bible as a decoder ring for current events, but in reality, it is worth a lot more than that and we should approach it as more than that. [Click title to read more.]

What We Miss When We Romanticize The Early Church

I often think our modern church is guilty of romanticizing the New Testament Church. And yet it strikes me that we only ever seem to romanticize those warm, cozy moments when believers are hanging out together in small rooms. [Click title to read more.]

Ministering To People With Mental Illness

Even in churches where believers and staff consider mental illness to be a valid issue worthy of attention, I think there's still a lot of confusion and awkwardness surrounding how we minister to that and to those people in the middle of it. Here are a few tips. [Click title to read more.]

Fellowship Is What Happens – Or Should Happen – In Times Of Church Conflict And Disagreement

I fear that, over time, the church has lost its grasp of what fellowship actually is. We've reduced it to a positive, feel-good form of engagement: bonding at a Bible study, chatting over chips and dips, believers going out in kayaks together. And that's surely a part of fellowship, but not the entirety of it. Fellowship is what ought to happen - what needs to happen - at these crisis points when egregious wrongs have been committed and everyone is (justifiably!) angry and hurt. [Click title to read more.]

Short-Sightedness Can Ruin You

What strikes me the most reading the stories of the Bible's vow-breakers is that our arrogance often goes much deeper than we think: we really do believe we know ourselves better than God does. [Click title to read more.]

Shibboleths and Gatekeepers

The only word necessary to cross the great ford that separates us from God is the name of Christ, and anyone can say it. May God spare us from becoming self-anointed gatekeepers over minor and insignificant issues. [Click title to read more.]