As Christians, I think we sometimes feel that if we're not good friends with all our fellow believers, we're doing it wrong. That if our brothers and sisters are not also our constant brunch buddies and going-out companions and soul siblings, we've failed or we won't be able to maintain a Christlike relationship. But that isn't true. [Click title to read more.]
Tag: fellowship
Stepping Outside Your Demographic
Even if you do fit in perfectly with your age group, it's not challenging or enlightening to expose yourself to a set of worldviews that roughly match yours. [Click title to read more.]
Remember The Absent
It is our job to seek out the disappeared and the vanishing. It is our responsibility not just to note that people are gone, but to find out why and to extend help where it might be needed.
Not All Christians Smile
It's easy for us to reflect our own assumptions, ideas, and personalities onto Christianity as a whole and onto other believers, too. It's simple, in other words, for us to assume that other believers do or should act just like us because they love the same God we do and are blessed in the same way as we are. [Click title to read more.]
Why Church Matters
Regardless of what we criticize or change, Christmas Eve reminded me of two things: that church is simple, and that church is necessary. [Click title to read more.]
What Happens When We Talk About Other People
The judgments we make about others and the opinions we form about them are cultivated in those moments of ownership when, by talking about someone, we feel that their life is rightfully ours to comment on or discuss. Such acts lead to can lead to feelings of superiority and to the idea that we know best. [Click title to read more].
Leaving A Legacy Through Relationship
It's important that Christians not neglect the joys of a mentoring relationship, but it's equally important that we recognize those relationships when we enter our lives - or where they might be present already. [Click title to read more.]
How Forgiveness Makes Space for Honesty
Because I'm a college professor, I assign homework. Students are not into this. A few years ago, one of my students was so not into this that she forgot to write down the page numbers of the reading assignment. Logging on to the forum for our class online, she promptly wrote an email that she … Continue reading How Forgiveness Makes Space for Honesty
What It Means To Come Together
As believers, disparate as we might be in our denominations and our methods, we all belong together to the body of Christ. When you have the chance, permit that wonder to enter into your life, and don't be afraid to reach out to believers outside your denomination or worship style. [Click title to read more.]
Why The Church Must Make An Effort To Value Solitude With God
It's true that the Christian life is not always meant to be a solo affair. Teachers, pastors, fellow believers, even small groups: all of those things are a part of our faith community, and they can help us and grow us. But in elevating these, I fear that we dismiss what I perceive to be the fundamental necessity of individual solitude with God. [Click title to read more.]
Samaritan's Song 