 |

Looking for new books, music, etc.? Purchases made through this search box benefit Sojourners' ministry:








|
 |
Is nothing sacred anymore?
With the exception of one Super Bowl in the 80s, I’ve generally looked at Super Bowl Sunday as an excuse to eat chips and watch the commercials. During the regular season, football commercials tend to bore me.…
Continue reading this entry »
Tags: Abortion, advertising, CBS, Christian, female, Football, male, Philippines, Pro-life, sally jenkins, Super Bowl, tim tebow, washington post, Women
Tags: activist, assassin, civil war, community organizer, disappearance, documentary, El Salvador, Election, Film, harassment, jamie moffett, Kidnapped, Latin America, martin sheen, martyr, Ordinary Radicals, Oscar Romero, Religion, School of the Americas, Video, World Bank

Most of my recent posts pointing out how greed misled us recently in the Great Recession have been met with criticism of being anti-capitalism and anti-American. I have shared true stories of greedy hospitals, of greedy bankers, of greedy golfers and…
Continue reading this entry »
Tags: altruism, America, american dream, ayn rand, Capitalism, constitution, economy, fountainhead, government, greed, horatio alger, human nature, individualism, jim wallis, john gault, justice, literature, middle class, novelists, Poor, Poverty, profits, prophets, ragged dick, rags to riches, rags to riches stories, Rand, recession, rich, selfishness, sociologists, Stories, United States, values, War, Welfare, Work, worldview, writer
Since 1994, musician David Bazan (former front man of Pedro the Lion and Headphones) has put sharp questions about faith, justice, and his Pentecostal-evangelical upbringing front and center in his songs…

Continue reading this entry »
Tags: agnosticism, candor, Christ, Christian, Christianity, culture, david bazan, Evangelical, evangelical subculture, faith journey, front man, interview, Jesus, journey, light and the glory, love your neighbor, mother, Music, natural revelation, pedro the lion, Pentecostal, revisionist histories, subculture, Video
We love a redemption story.
The profound appeal of rags-to-riches-to-rags-to-riches or the fall-from-grace-followed-by-a-spectacular-comeback is about as ingrained in our American psyche (and soul) as rooting for the underdog, generosity to those in distress, and second chances.
When I walked into the movie…
Continue reading this entry »
Tags: addict, addiction, alcoholism, America, beauty, budgets, Despair, Film, journalist, movie, Music, pray, profession, redemption, truth
Tags: absolutism, Books, comparative religion, conflict, critical thought, debate, Ethics, God, heart, interview, jacob needleman, love, Materialism, myth, nature of god, philosophy, power, purpose of life, relativism, Religion, science, science and religion, teaching, toxicity, tradition
Tags: Children, class, consumption, economy, Ethics, faith, Families, Finding Our Way in the New Economy, greed, guilt, guilty pleasures, living wage, moral compass, mother, plastic surgery, possessions, real housewives of orange county, Rediscovering Values, relationship, shallowness, values, wage, Wall Street, wives
The last two movies that my wife and I had the chance to watch were Avatar and The Blind Side. Not sure how that happened, but both movies had very rich missiological and race themes to them. Or maybe I just…
Continue reading this entry »
Tags: America, avatar, Black, blind side, captivity, clint eastwood, culture, Evangelical, evangelicalism, Evangelism, Family, Football, Gospel, gran torino, hollywood, imax, john wayne, leadership, Ministry, missiology, movie, movies, natives, Republican, savages, subtext, Western, White, white america
Tags: bonus, book, budget, business, business leaders, Christ, Christianity, church, Community, conversations, Corporations, decisions, disappointment, Economics, economy, faith community, Families, Finding Our Way in the New Economy, government, jim wallis, leaders, Main Street, moral compass, moral values, Politics, recession, Sojourners, Theology, values, Wall Street
Tags: blogging, choice, Community, dangers of the internet, facebook, fear, friend, Global, identity, interaction, Internet, Media, myth, N.T. Wright, pew study, role playing, self, technology, temptation, true self, twitter, Video, writing
Church music was my first language. I was raised in a church tradition that did not allow musical instruments in worship. Instead, 3 times a week for 16 years I sat in a congregation that sang better than most choirs;…
Continue reading this entry »
Tags: accompaniment, ancient liturgy, choirs, Christian Community, church of christ, communion, Emerging, Emerging church, harmonies, hymn, hymnal, Liturgy, lutheran, Music, Prayer, singer, singing, tradition, Worship
Malcolm Gladwell, in his popular book The Tipping Point, names three types of people who do the work of making social movements succeed: Connectors, who bring us together, Mavens, who connect us with new information, and Salespeople, whose charisma and…
Continue reading this entry »
Tags: Aaron Strumpel, activators, Agents of Future, asthmatic kitty, Bifrost Arts, church communities, Hermas Zopoula, Love is Concrete, malcolm gladwell, mavens, music teacher, Portland, resource hub, Soul-Junk, the Bridge, todd fadel, visual art, welcome wagon, worship community, worship services
Have you seen the two videos below produced by Dove?
I showed one of them recently before a sermon and the second was a bit too risque to show with some younger folks in our midst. My sermon was part of a…
Continue reading this entry »
Tags: axe commercials, beauty, child of god, commercialism, commodities, cosmetics, deification, human beings, identity, self, self hatred, self identity, self image, unilever
Tags: assumptions, bishop spong, Christ, church, church leader, Community, conservatism, controversy, disappointment, embrace, Emergent, Evangelical, evangelical faith, followers of jesus, interview, Jesus, josh brown, leadership, literalism, radicalism, skeptic, skydiver, teaching, travel, youth specialties
Tags: affection, Books, Community, Family, granddaughter, Humor, Memoir, Mennonite, mother, Religion, Story, Thanksgiving, tragedy
Disney’s new high-tech, 3-D animated version of Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol, already a box office smash well before Thanksgiving, is a film that comes with high expectations. (It should, with ticket prices as high as $14 for the 3-D…
Continue reading this entry »
Tags: animation technique, box office smash, charles dicken, christmas carol, christmas eve, conversion, digital animation, ghost, Great Awakening, Jim Carrey, Jonathan Edwards, mickey mouse, robert zemeckis, Scrooge

I am an Evangelical Christian. What does that mean? In part, I believe that Christmas, the celebration of Christ’s birth, is good news. Not just to me or my family or those that think or believe just like me, but…
Continue reading this entry »
Tags: Advent, bailout, book, business, celebration, Change, Christ, Christian, Christmas, Community, culture, debate, Economic, economic crisis, economic uncertainty, Economics, economy, Evangelical, Family, Finding Our Way in the New Economy, foreclosure, God, Good News, Great Recession, greed, Hope, Main Street, market, maxim, moral compass, morality, opportunity, recession, Reflection, Religious, service, simon and schuster, sin, tradition, values, Wall Street, warren buffet, Work, Worship
Tags: Australia, Cathy Henkel, Change, climate change, climate justice, copenhagen, documentary, Dorjee Sun, economic crisis, Environment, Film, Global Warming, movie, The Burnign Season, tribeca film festival
A confession: When I first saw publicity for Dive! I forwarded it to my main dumpster diving partner with the subject line: “great.” As in, “great, now dumpster diving will become more popular and we’ll have more competition.”
Since writing a feature…
Continue reading this entry »
Tags: budget, Buy Nothing Day, CBC, documentary, dumpster dive, dumpster diver, dumpster diving, employee, Film, food, food source, Media, media coverage, police, store managers, Thanksgiving, washington post, youtube
I have mixed feelings about wish lists. They rob Christmas of creativity, surprise, and personal contact, but they make shopping much, much easier. And it’s nice to know that if I pay attention to the lists, gift recipients won’t roll…
Continue reading this entry »
Tags: agriculture, budget, charities, Christmas, culture, donation, economy, food, food security, gift, households, money, profits
|
 |
- MOST VIEWED
- MOST COMMENTED
- RECENTLY POSTED
|