Apprentice 2 Jesus

Church

  • Everything is on fire

    This podcast with Brian Zahn has been something that is sinking deep into my soul. Zahn has a story at the end about the fire at Notre Dame that stirred me and calls me to keep following Jesus no matter what. I need to absorb this stance Zahn describes deep into my life. This is… Read more

  • Evangelical orthodoxy centers on one thing… and it’s not Jesus

    Nor is it the Bible. Two things I grew up believing deeply, Jesus and the Bible, turns out, in practice, NOT to be the centering thoughts of our American evangelical lives. And there is data. Read more

  • The heartbreak we refuse to acknowledge

    It’s easy to point out the big failures in the American church. Another one happened over this past weekend. We will wrestle with another celebrity pastor and how their church failed to handle the situation. Tish Harrison Warren reminds us that for all the press coverage of a failed leadership problem there are so many… Read more

  • Extreme views and the fall of democracy

    Christian nationalism is a hot topic. Extreme ideologies to both sides are a worry to me. Each extreme works to tell people what IS right, which is THEIR way. But Christian nationalism is of concern because it rips out the bedrock bellied to love our neighbor. This edition of the Holy Post podcast truly deserves… Read more

  • The pruning of the American Church

    We go through news cycles fast. (There are other descriptions, but they have to do with gun images and I’m not ready for that right now.) The absolute corruption of the leadership of the SBC needs to be understood. It’s “SOOOOO last week” but it cannot be allowed that convenience! Read more

  • Prayers for the church

    I reflect often on how the prayers of those who have gone before are so helpful to start words for me. It is true in this time when the American church is being shaken. The shaking comes NOT from the culture and some perceived persecution. The shaking comes from the Spirit because the American church… Read more

  • Judgment begins at the house of God

    Who cannot now see the rot in a culture that mobilizes to exile churches that call a woman on staff a “pastor” or that invite a woman to speak from the pulpit on Mother’s Day, but dismisses rape and molestation as “distractions” and efforts to address them as violations of cherished church autonomy? In sectors… Read more

  • The American church crisis

    20 years ago it was all about the crisis in the Catholic Church. That crisis has wound around to hit every segment of the American Church. We need repentance. First. We can talk about all the other things to do, but right now it is repentance FIRST. We are NOT repentant. We are stiff-necked. It… Read more

  • The Church

    I love the Body of Christ. We’ve done a good job of messing up the vision of Christ’s body in the conservative evangelical church in America, yet… there is this magnificent Body of Christ that endures and thrives all over the world. This hymn was used in our Second Sunday of Lent and one verse… Read more

  • The Feast of St. Stephen

    Today being the first Sunday of Christmas is also the Feast of St. Stephen. What we seem to focus on in the Church is his martyrdom. He is the Church’s first martyr. Even the prayer for the day focuses on his martyrdom. Read more