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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, […]

Jake MeadorChurch

Five Ministry Dynamics for the Gray Zone - Commonplaces

From Rebuilders, which continues to be one of my favorite podcasts. Essential listening for ministry leaders, pastors, etc. Here they are discussing challenges that are confronting the church in what Sayers calls a “gray zone.” Gray zones refer to historical […]

Jake MeadorChurchPan-Africanism

Reading the Pan-Africanists: Kenneth Kaunda VI - Commonplaces

Kaunda on churches and the life of nations: We need the uncommitted [Kaunda is referring to intellectuals not employed by the state or by a political party] intellectual whose mind is able to range widely and to occupy himself with […]

Jake MeadorHistoryChurchCommunitiesPan-AfricanismKenneth Kaunda

Reading the Pan-Africanists: Kenneth Kaunda V - Commonplaces

More on nationalism: The leader must recognize that politics alone do not create a nation; a whole network of cultural, religious and social factors play an important role. Nation-building, therefore, is not solely a political operation, active encouragement must also […]

Skyler Flowers and Michael GrahamFeaturedChurchEvangelicalism

One Year Later: Reflecting on Evangelicalism's Six-Way Fracturing - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

Skyler Flowers also contributed to this essay. Reflections on the Six Way Fracturing of Evangelicalism a Year Later Critical Race Theory. Afghanistan. Verdicts in Floyd and Arbery cases. Kyle Rittenhouse. Vaccine Mandates. Russia invades Ukraine. Roe v. Wade overturned. Uvalde […]

Jake MeadorChurch

Being Deep in History - Commonplaces

Between the Councils of Nicea and Chalcedon there were 126 years—years that were fraught with contentious debate within the church over essential Christian doctrines. We tend to forget that now as those debates have become so remote that we don’t […]

Jake MeadorChurchCommunities

What I Saw at the Justice Summit - Commonplaces

Last week I spent two days on the south side of Chicago attending the justice summit at Progressive Baptist Church, pastored by the Rev. Dr. Charlie Dates. These are some general observations from my time there, though I expect that […]

Jake MeadorFeaturedChurchEvangelicalism

Winsomeness, Evangelism, and Pastoral Theology - Mere Orthodoxy | Christianity, Politics, and Culture

It is an odd thing to see a pastor from New York City presented as the spokesman for a movement supposedly defined by its concern with “winsomeness.” Though I do not know the city that well, my few trips to it have […]