In his landmark film series, How Should We Then Live? Francis Schaeffer presented his audience with a frightening image of the manipulative power of…
On Keeping On
One of the summer thunderstorms famous in the upper Midwest just blew through. Rain poured so steadily the streets outside Toad Hall filled briefly…
Summer Shorts
Family / Hospitality / Ordinary Life / Spirituality / Work and Rest
In a moment of general regret my husband said: “I’m sorry.” He was looking at me with tears in his eyes. I thought he…
Leaving All, Gaining All
Community / Faith / Family / Maturity and Flourishing / Safe Place / Spirituality
Author’s note: This was originally delivered as a talk at Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL on April 1, 2011, as part of a series of…
Loving Accountability or Burdensome Legalism?
Accountability is much in the news these days. Politicians on the campaign trail, for example, claim they will be transparent so as to be…
Trust and Safety
“Trust is confidence,” Jim Belcher says, “that the other person’s intentions are good and that we have no reason to be protective or careful…
What the Bleep Do I Know?
Community / Movies / Ordinary Life / Safe Place / Spirituality
Sunday Afternoon “Are you from the Unitarian Church?” A small, dark-haired woman drinking a soy latte and holding a copy of Enlightenment magazine smiled…
Church centered, not church occupied
Church centered, not church occupied I don’t want to be misunderstood here. I am not saying that church membership is optional for the Christian,…
Bored By Life, By God
Culture / Ordinary Life / Spirituality
I’ve been thinking about what we Christians experience when we read Scripture. On the one hand, we believe it to be God’s revelation of…
What Would Jesus Value?
Discernment / Scripture / Spirituality / The Skill
Surveys reveal there is apparently a marked disparity between the number of people—especially among males—who claim to believe in Christianity and the number who…