March 19, 2024

We are less than two weeks from Easter, deep in the Lenten season but looking toward the cross on Good Friday. As part of my Lenten discipline, I’ve been reading Brian Zahnd’s newest book, The Wood Between the Worlds: a Poetic Theology of the Cross. Zahnd offers thoughtful, sometimes controversial but always reverent reflections on the complex meanings found in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The back cover copy summarizes the book well: “Just as gazing through the eyepiece of... Read more

February 11, 2024

I’ve been a practicing Protestant in the Baptist tradition all my adult life, but when the big liturgical seasons like Lent and Advent come around each year, my Catholic upbringing preens a little. I had a front-row seat to the liturgical traditions practiced by Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican, Episcopalian, and several other mainline denominations within the worldwide Christian church. Evangelicals are generally not included in that group, though in recent years some “low-church” denominations have begun introducing annual traditions to their... Read more

January 17, 2024

One year ago today, Sue Edwards and I celebrated the release of 40 Questions about Women in Ministry, a Kregel Academic addition to their 40 Questions series. In our book, we address the controversy surrounding the Bible’s teaching about women—their worth, their relationship to God, their gifts, and their place in church, home, and society. If you attend church regularly, you’ve likely run across some facet of the conversation. In the American South, where Sue and I live among evangelical... Read more

January 10, 2024

The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism by Tim Alberta My Goodreads rating: 5 of 5 stars Tim Alberta, best-selling author, journalist with The Atlantic, and pastor’s son, chronicles a painful—and still developing—season in the American evangelical movement with heartbreaking detail and incisive analysis. Half of the book follows key figures any evangelical on Twitter would recognize, showing how deep and broad the author’s access was to the power players, along with a... Read more

January 6, 2024

Epiphany has arrived—finally, the Magi can meet the child Jesus! Our composite Nativity scenes most often include both shepherds and wise men observing the holy family, but the biblical story teaches us that the visiting groups arrived at vastly different times. It’s become a family tradition in many homes to move the three kings and all their entourage closer to the creche each day after Christmas, until finally they reach the scene on January 6. Why January 6? Centuries of... Read more

December 29, 2023

Earlier this month I posted my “favorite books” of the year, but I should have titled it “favorite nonfiction.” As my Goodreads account shows, I’ve read far more fiction this year than anything else, and several of them are worth sharing with you. First, though, I must mention the one memoir on my list. I don’t usually read memoirs, but when longtime Bible teacher Beth Moore released her life’s story, All My Knotted-Up Life, I knew I had to read... Read more

December 26, 2023

Welcome my friend Sarah Griffith, a student at Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS) where she learns theology and how to communicate it creatively. A wife and mother, Sarah works in the DTS Spiritual Formation Department. Her passions include writing and caring for all her animals. Find her on Instagram at @sarahkgriffi. This post was published the day after Christmas, a few weeks after Taylor Swift was named TIME’s Person of the Year. Consider these devotionals as you stare down the last... Read more

December 19, 2023

As usual, it’s been a year of reading some really great books . . . and a few stinkers. Lucky for you I’m here to talk about the good ones. The dominant genre of 2023 has been biblical studies, for two reasons: my DMin studies in New Testament lean that direction, which means I’m more interested in such topics, and because I have friends writing in that genre. Dr. Carmen Imes, professor of Old Testament at Biola University and author... Read more

October 31, 2023

The image above depicts the artist’s vision of heaven on earth, packed with saints looking down on the doge (ruler) of Venice as inspiration to make wise decisions on behalf of the Venetians. When I took the photo on my recent trip to Italy, I noted “Heaven looks … crowded.” Heaven is getting crowded with people I love. The Bible tells us that eternity will be full of the faithful through the ages—those we’d love to meet and those we... Read more

October 12, 2023

What role does an aunt or uncle, along with parents’ single friends, play in the lives of children? I wangled today’s post from my very busy, very talented friend Nika Spaulding, who spends her days pastoring, podcasting, and studying—unless she’s sneaking off to create the best kind of aunt chaos. In October thirteen years ago, the tectonic plates underneath me shook and rocked my whole world. Suddenly I had new fears I had never considered before, new dreams birthed out... Read more


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