the Essays & Reflections
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My Heart is Weak
My heart is weak. Yesterday a man overcome by evil killed scores with a truck in Nice, France. I’ve grown tired of being surprised, shocked, or acting as though the attack was unexpected. This is a sad reality of our world today. That a 24-hour news cycle hunts for tragedies affecting a group of people to grab
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In the Wake of Hate
It’s been a little over 24 hours since the most recent attack in Paris. This was not an isolated event, it was not the first, and will not likely be the last (thought I pray for a long break). There is hurt, pain, and death in life. I believe that the best of humanity surrounds
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4 Reasons Suburban churches should stay out of the city
I’ve heard that several prominent suburban churches in Minnesota announcing plans to open locations downtown. As an urban dweller – who is also a missionary and student of the church – I thought I’d share some major reservations about this development. At the core this is an issue of culture and world view. A mentor
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The 3 Biggest Challenges to Evangelicalism
A lot of very interesting things are happening right now in the evangelical movement in the western world. As far as I am able to tell, this movement has enjoyed a level of prominence over the last several decades as the growing voice of the non-Catholic church in the eyes of the media and public.
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When the Bible Changed for Me
A subtle change in the how I see Scripture and the bible took place. A change that is rooted in appreciating the people and places of the texts.
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In Solidarity with Us
It’s almost incomprehensible that the cosmic God of all things could allow evil to be inflicted upon others. As bombs explode, buildings crumble, seas rush in, or bullets tear through streets we ask questions of a God who seems disinterested and distant. We’ve been told that we’re exceptional in Gods eyes and have taken this
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The Life of my Discontent
Hope is contingent on discontentment. Though every aspect of life attempts to content me. Telling me that if I just do X, achieve Y or buy Z then some/all of that discontent will be taken away. But what if we were called to live into our discontentment so that we might long for an audacious
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Changing for the God who doesn’t
As I look to learn more of God in scripture I come to discover that his character is unchanging. That there is no more room for Him to be loving, compassionate, patient, and graceful. It is in the very core of God this unchanging and undying reality that many find comfort and rest. Yet for his steadfast
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Church as a Base Camp
Church is not the goal. To journey and be transformed is. As a pastor my heart beats so that others may have their own intimate and exciting experiences with Jesus and the Holy Spirit. For the church to facilitate this, we need to see ourselves as the base camp of life. Where we prepare others
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Dissecting my Construction
People thrive within the boundaries they construct to understand the chaos and confusion that is the life around them. As Christians we are no different, but with the thrust to interpret divine reality our constructed realities easily become self-serving, vicious, and abusive. One of our most critical jobs is to dissect how and why we’ve constructed our world with the hope that