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The Crowd Has Departed: To those who value efficiency and power, the work we’ve given ourselves to will typically appear foolish and weak.
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Such a gift to spend the weekend in beautiful Seattle, but I’m glad to be home for a walk through Jackson Park to welcome back migrators like these yellow-rumped and palm warblers.
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Against Inevitability: “But if inevitabilism is an invention than it isn’t inevitable. Altman’s version of utopia isn’t a foregone conclusion, even if his investors want us to think it is.”
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Jesus doesn’t need our weapons: “The problem with a vision of a violent Jesus who justifies our warmongering is not that it makes our Savior too powerful; it makes him weak, embarrassingly weak.”
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A beautiful morning in Jackson Park made even better by the cherry blossoms and the first palm warbler of the season.
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A good morning with the birds of Jackson Park, including kinglets, flickers, and this handsome blue-winged teal.
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A Plea to Pastors: “The vows you and I took when we said yes to this strange vocation include fidelity to Jesus Christ alone. Yet the people in your congregation are being tempted to place their hopes in a leader obsessed with his own greatness.”
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A Plea to Pastors: “The vows you and I took when we said yes to this strange vocation include fidelity to Jesus Christ alone. Yet the people in your congregation are being tempted to place their hopes in a leader obsessed with his own greatness.”
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A plea to pastors: “But some things are worth fighting about and faithfulness to Jesus and loyalty to his kingdom are some of those things.”
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Ending the day with a “know your rights” webinar. I’m grateful for Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights and other local orgs who train Chicago residents to be good neighbors.
Find trainings here.
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In today’s newsletter, with help from the “kneel-ins” at southern churches in the 1960s, I’m thinking about that anti-ICE church protest in St. Paul.
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I’ve been searching for words since waking up to news of my home country’s lethal attack against the country of my childhood. I think I found them.
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Can the illegal and immoral actions of our hypocritical president be an answer to persistent, fervent prayer? Countless Venezuelan Christians are prone to think so and the rest of us might consider taking their hard-earned perspective into account as we offer our own opinions.
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Guys, did you know it snows in Michigan?
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Five inches last night. A bunch more today. 55 mph winds. I guess we live in Michigan now.
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What book did you read this year that you’re most likely to recommend to the rest of us? Here’s what I read in 2025.
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On the second day of Christmas we braved a bit of freezing rain to enjoy the winter beauty of northern Michigan.
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Merry Christmas. Last night I preached from Isaiah 9:2-7, “Salvation in the Shadows.”
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“Can you fulfill your responsibilities without violating Jesus’ teachings? If not, could it be that your loyalty to Jesus calls you to walk away?”
Thank you to Christians for Social Action for publishing my appeal to ICE agents who share my faith.
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“I can’t be the only one who finds it disorienting having to so regularly justify justice.”
Today’s newsletter is about the guides we need in these deceitful days.
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There’s been a lot of attempted meaning-making in the aftermath of the murder of Charlie Kirk. In my newsletter today I suggest that emotional and spiritual maturity invites us to something different.
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”‘Our church,” wrote Bonhoeffer, ‘has been fighting during these years for its self-preservation, as if that were an end in itself.’ This, I think, is the source of my disinterest in yet another hand-wringing session about the future of Western Christianity.”
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So much activity in Jackson Park this morning, including this song sparrow tuning up, a yellow warbler surveying his territory, and a hungry goldfinch.
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Song sparrows, palm warblers, and Baltimore oriels were all well-represented during my walk through Jackson Park this morning.
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From today’s newsletter: >While our congregations will typically stay out of the political weeds, it’s our very identity as the embodied presence of Christ in the world which compels our prophetic witness when the intention and methods of our nation’s leaders damage our neighbors.
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