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Matthew LaPineFeaturedChurch

Preventing Destructive Leadership: Some Reflections for Elders - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

We ought to be aware by now of the danger of destructive leaders. 2020 brought two important books addressing the issue, Chuck DeGroat’s When Narcissism Comes to the Church and Scot McKnight and Laura Barringer’s A Church Called Tov. Russell […]

Jake MeadorChurch

Christendom in Winter - Commonplaces

There’s a certain sort of mainline Protestant, blessedly rare these days so far as I can tell, who has at times argued that while Scripture might teach that such and such is the Christian teaching on sexuality, we must adapt […]

Simon StokesFeaturedChurchEvangelicalism

A Ride Worth Leaving: Escaping the Anxiety of the Modern Church - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. —Ecclesiastes 1:9 Imagine a windmill with its blade turning in the breeze. The blade of […]

Jake MeadorChurch

Small Groups, Church Life, and Being Human - Commonplaces

A striking and depressing stat, this: 20% of people in the US have no extended family within a 1-hour drive (among those who have any extended family). The proximity varies most by race/ethnicity and education. pic.twitter.com/4POlHWndon — Demographic Fact A […]

KJ DrakeFeaturedChurch

Schmemann’s Vision of a Sacramental World and the Reformed Tradition - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

Alexander Schmemann is a window into a theological world much different than typically encountered in American evangelical circles. With a faith firmly grounded in the Russian Orthodox theological tradition and speaking determinedly into late-modern Western life, Schmemann has intrigued many […]

Jake MeadorChurch

Perspective - Commonplaces

Some real talk: On a typical Sunday here in Lincoln, I would bet good money that there are more folks in PCA churches than there are PC(USA). 20 years ago, that would have been insane—but thanks to God’s kindness to […]

Jake MeadorChurchBook Reviews

Reading "Non-Anxious Presence" (II) - Commonplaces

Before getting into more prescriptive analysis in his later chapters, Sayers spends the first chapter developing his concept of a “gray zone.” To begin, The pandemic, cultural change, political polarization, and technological disruption have rapidly altered the world we live […]

Jake MeadorChurch

New Coalitions - Commonplaces

Though it is common now, and quite understandable, to lament the relationships and institutions that have been changed and broken over the past seven years, I also think it’s worth keeping our eyes open to the relationships and coalitions being […]

Jake MeadorChurchBook Reviews

To Die on the Right Side - Commonplaces

Ward, from After Humanity: Lewis thus ardently defends the Tao not so much because it told him how to live, still less because it entitled him to tell other people how to live, but because it told him how to view […]

Jake MeadorChurch

Places of Refuge are Places of Discipleship - Commonplaces

Here is one of the arguments some friends have made in defending the evangelical hard pivot toward Trump and right-wing politics more generally: The country is changing. No one will be friendly to all of our beliefs or values. However, if […]

Jake MeadorChurchBook ReviewsNon-Anxious Presence

Reading Mark Sayers's "A Non-Anxious Presence" - Commonplaces

That we live in a time of uncertainty and unique challenge is at this point widely accepted, I think. Call it the “negative age” if you like, or an ecclesial winter, or, better still in my view, a “gray zone.” […]

Jake MeadorChurch

Boromir - Commonplaces

To briefly say a bit more about this: "Evangelicalism" as a Movement of Boromirs: each faction in the movement trying to wield a ring of power in its own way, thereby using worldly means to supposedly obtain heavenly goods. Or, […]