Brian McLaren, Doubt, and Decoding

Books, Church Life, Theology
It’s time, McLaren says with a clear tone of fearless urgency. In a world riddled with division, stuffed with nuclear warheads, and barrelling down a storyline of extinction, we need harmony more than ever. We need Stage Four churches making room for all four stages to exist and lead to love.

Why I Left and Why I Stayed

Church Life, LGBTQ+, Women
I wish though I could go back to that young girl, sitting in that big arena with all its grandeur. I wish I could invite her to a quiet, less intense space, and tell her she may leave the church, but it will never mean she left the faith.

Jesus Invited Women to Take Their Place

Church Life, Practical Justice, Women
Throughout history, women overwhelmingly have been silenced when they’ve had a truth to tell, so much so that it felt detrimental to speak up. A waste of words. Yet Jesus, who came to make all things right, who came to overthrow power structures that demean and oppress, gave women a voice when others didn’t.

Where Do We Go from Here?

Church Life, Peace & Nonviolence, Race
Our country is aching to see the strength it takes to accept responsibility for more than our own individual acts. To be wrong, and admit it. To be the first to apologize. To accept the hard truth that we’ve sown bitterness and are reaping violence. Violence doesn’t start in our fists, it is born in our hearts.

Giving (Not Taking) is the Mark of the Believer

General, Practical Justice, Theology
How Christianity went from a faith based on sacrificial giving to an institutional blessing of taking will certainly be a challenge for historians untangle. If there were ever a faith with the heft, logic, and compassion to oppose imperialism, colonialism, slavery, and exploitation of every kind, you’d think it would be Christianity.