Practical Theology: Deconstruction and Politics in My Christopraxis
We got the authors of three recent books of practical theology together and asked them to bang their ideas around to see what interesting overlaps and contrasts emerged. Andrew Root of Luther Seminary...
View ArticlePractical Theology: Seeing the Flaws
We got the authors of three recent books of practical theology together and asked them to bang their ideas around to see what interesting overlaps and contrasts emerged. Andrew Root of Luther Seminary...
View ArticlePractical Theology: The Buried Mystericism of Childhood
We got the authors of three recent books of practical theology together and asked them to bang their ideas around to see what interesting overlaps and contrasts emerged. Andrew Root of Luther Seminary...
View ArticlePrayer Beads: Yes, It’s OK for Protestants
“Is it okay for Protestants to use prayer beads?” In the five years I’ve been writing and teaching about prayer beads, this is, by far, the number one question I hear. The subtext of the question seems...
View ArticlePractical Theology: What We Would Steal
We got the authors of three recent books of practical theology together and asked them to bang their ideas around to see what interesting overlaps and contrasts emerged. Andrew Root of Luther Seminary...
View ArticlePractical Theology: Love-Fest
We got the authors of three recent books of practical theology together and asked them to bang their ideas around to see what interesting overlaps and contrasts emerged. Andrew Root of Luther Seminary...
View ArticleWhy I Don’t Care if You Use Prayer Beads
I don’t care if you use prayer beads. I know that seems strange to say. After all, I’m the woman who is passionate about them. I’ve collected them for almost 25 years. I’ve built a living out of...
View ArticlePostChristian: Christian Piatt on the Church and the Future of Faith
“There is no question that Christianity as a religion has been in need of a refining fire for some time, and it’s not surprising that the idea is met with some fear and self-preserving instinct. But if...
View ArticleMichael Yankoski: Three Ways to Embrace The Sacred This Year
by Michael Yankoski Earth’s crammed with heaven And every common bush afire with God; But only those who see, take off their shoes. -Elizabeth Barrett Browning Being oblivious to the Sacred is endemic...
View ArticleFive Ways to Experience an Extreme Advent
By Sybil MacBeth Author, The Season of the Nativity: Confessions of an Advent, Christmas and Epiphany Extremist I cannot remember exactly when it happened, but I think it was in a large high-end mall...
View ArticleChristmas as a Season: Sybil MacBeth’s “The Season of Nativity” and a Holiday...
“The whole Nativity Season deserves to be relished.” ~Sybil MacBeth There is perhaps no holiday for which it is possible to go more “all out” than Christmas. Stores start their marketing campaigns...
View ArticleEarly Christmas Joy: Meditating with the Advent and Christmas Stories
The joy came to me early this year, in the form of Jan Johnson’s Taste and See: Experiencing the Stories of Advent and Christmas. Johnson invites readers to enter into the stories through a sort of...
View ArticleFollowing Our Heartache: The Intersection of Yoga and New Monasticism
“Yoga mats have become little island sanctuaries of peace. The time for that is over. We are now called to truly build community, to pool our talents, to share our heartaches and triumphs, and to use...
View ArticleTrust Me, Church: Five Micro-Resolutions That Make a Big Difference
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said to myself as the storm door pumped behind me to a close. I carried the day’s mail in on the flat of my forearm, like a waiter bussing dirty dishes. A letter from...
View ArticleTrust Me, Church: How Your Bulletin Makes Me Feel Like I Do (or Don’t) Belong
In my search for a church home during graduate school, I attended over ten churches in two years, each with their own different style of communication. Some handed out a tan, tri-fold piece of paper by...
View ArticleWhen God Hides: An Interview with Author Tony Kriz
Have you ever felt like God was hiding from you? Have you ever wondered how you’re supposed to be a faithful Christian when God feels absent so much of the time? If you’ve ever asked these questions or...
View ArticleTrust Me, Church: Why I’m Not That Interested in “Letting You Know I’m Here”
When I graduated from divinity school, I was homeless. Not in a literal kind of way but a spiritual one. I had been living in the same city for two years without a church to call my own. Sure, I had...
View ArticleFive Things To Do When GOD Seems ALOOF
There is an old joke… There was a man who fell in a hole and couldn’t get out. He had a friend walk by above and he called out for help, but the friend kept walking. After some time he saw a second man...
View ArticleTrust Me, Church: When Passing the Peace Turns Stressful for Me
Belonging to a different church than my husband seemed hardly subversive in the beginning. After all, he worked fourteen-hour days on Sundays as a pastor in a neighboring town and took our one and only...
View ArticleA Powerful Manual for the Spiritual Life
As a prophet and wisdom teacher, Jesus frequently challenged the status quo and employed witty, paradoxical, and sometimes often shockingly hyperbolic statements to counter conventional wisdom with the...
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