Early in my career as prison chaplain, a prison guard patted me on the back and said, “It’s ok for you to care about them ‘preach,’ but it’s my job to put the boots to them!” The statement, perhaps...

This can be a source of dissonance for mission trip sending churches because, in some sense, they know Ver Beek is right. Church councils may have even carefully broached the issue prior to ever reading the research—asking that uncomfortable question, “What if, instead of spending $830 per volunteer on plane tickets for 12 people we just send the $10,000 straight to the people who need relief?”

There were five things that I took away from the conference that I can do. I’ll go through them one-by-one and elaborate.

We don’t need statistics to see evidence of poverty in our community – Ingersoll is a small town after all. We all know someone who is having a tough time making ends meet or finding a job, struggling...

At the tail end of this season of Advent people seem to have more emotional space for attention to both the brokenness of the world and the hope hidden in Christ.

“I had to admit I harbored the rudiments of racism, an unconscious attitude that I fight daily, but that none of us can totally escape,” writes Mary Pipher in her book The Middle of Everywhere. How...

We just moved – packed up all we own and migrated across the Rockies and across the Georgia Strait. We’re now in a town that shares borders with two reserves. I admit that I don’t know a great deal...

Defend immigrants and welcome strangers are prominent Biblical calls. Yet, a 2010 Pew Forum survey reports that 88% of white Evangelicals’ views on immigration are primarily influenced by concerns...

Sara Miles wrote a piece for the Episcopal Café entitled “The Most Important Word in the Bible.” That word, claims Miles, is “with.” “With” is central to God’s Trinitarian nature and relationship to...

The words of Micah are among the best known in the Hebrew Bible. Justice has always been a central theme in Jewish thought and practice and the word ‘justice’ appears more than 200 times in the Old Testament. It is the subject of justice that I want to focus on. I am going to begin with a brief excursion into agriculture – canal irrigation technology in particular. That there is a connection with justice will hopefully become evident quite soon.

Blame it on the red hair, but I get angry about a lot of things. I’m angry about the apathy I see around me about the deep wounds of this world. I’m furious at certain politicians for squelching...

A reflection on Crossing the divide: Why culture should be cool. (2013, October 12) The Economist. We all know that our denomination is declining and so are many of our congregations. The question is...