Category: Church
A Tale of Two Churches
I. Hamburg In 2019 I found myself working in Hamburg, Germany during the city’s celebration of a popular local holiday: Reformationstag, or Reformation Day.
Advent IV: The Coming(s) of Christ and Our Hope
The Epistle to the Hebrews might not be the first place we turn for Advent readings. We hear nothing of Mary or a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes. In fact, Hebrews offers no reflections on the birth of Jesus and...
Advent II: Expectant Waiting
As 2020 has lingered on, I have watched as marker after marker of a year’s progression have been overtaken by an endless sea of sameness: one weekend blurs into the next, one Zoom call into the next. The rhythms of...
Advent I: The Face of God
The deepest desire of the people of God is to see the face of God. The Psalmist gives voice to this desire in the form of exhortation: “seek his face always” (105:4). The invocation of Israel’s priests answers this desire...
The Church of Individualism
Mark Sayers defines secularism as the pursuit of “the fruits of the Kingdom without the King.” It’s a beautifully succinct summary of a culture with a historical amnesia of it’s once-upon-a-time countercultural Christian foundations built to support the social virtues...
To Open or Not to Open? A Humble Plea
“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in...
Piercing a Hole in the Heavens
I recently left K-12 school administration to plant a church. Now, when asked what I do, I reply, “I’m a pastor,” which is when things get interesting. Many people have trouble knowing what to say next. Often an individual will...
Keeping Vaclav Benda’s Door Open
I don’t think there’s anyone better to explain to Rod Dreher where he went wrong in his recent posts about the death of George Floyd than Rod Dreher. When I wrote to him (Update #8 in that linked post), I...
The Search for Anglican Identity
By M. H. Turner Table of Contents (printable PDF) Introduction The Anglican Disposition? The Anglican Branch? The Anglican Via Media? The Anglican Attraction? Why Does There Need to Be a Search for Anglican Identity? Conclusion Introduction The word Anglicanism may...
Two Cheers for Gregory’s Augustinian Civic Liberalism
In a recent essay, “Liberalism, the American Right, and the Place of Love in Politics,” Jake Meador attempts to move beyond the terms of the recent, ostensibly existential, debate within American conservatism. The opposition between libertarian proceduralism — represented by...