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Hey all, Years ago, I was part of a community of pastors and writers who did a project called The Hardest Question. The goal was to read the lectionary text and figure out the hardest question we could ask of it. We had a great run, and lots of fun,…

The past few weeks I’ve been resting in this beautiful verse from 1 John 4:16- For we have come to believe and to know the love God has for us. It’s so simple. You’ve probably read through this passage before and skipped right over it. Today, I invite you to…

I’m delighted to announce that Fortress Press will be releasing a tenth anniversary edition of my first book, The Boundary Breaking God: An Unfolding Story of Hope and Promise in 2019 and will include a new foreword from me. This book was my way as a young pastor of making…

Happy Easter! How about a book giveaway? Have you joined my newsletter yet? If not, now’s a great time! Between now and April 9th, sign up for my newsletter and be entered to win an autographed copy of any of my three books (your choice). And get this: I don’t…

Happy Epiphany! Epiphany Sunday is one of my favorite days. (I spent a whole chapter of my first book, The Boundary Breaking-God, talking about all the reasons why.) Yes, the camels help. I do love camels. But mostly, it’s the magi. The magi were outsiders who came an unfathomable distance…

I am delighted to share an Advent resource with you that I have fallen in love with. All Creation Waits: The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings by Gayle Boss features twenty-five reflections on how wild animals from North America adapt to the changing seasons of light to dark. The illustrations…

In celebration of Original Blessing’s one year publishing anniversary, I’m sharing some goodies with you this week! And if you sign up for my newsletter, I’ll send you a full service liturgy for original blessing, as well as an additional non-traditional blessing service with stations and experiential pieces. Communion is…

Happy All Saints Day! And what better way to celebrate than to revel in some original blessing?! Today marks the one year anniversary of the publishing of Original Blessing, so this week I’m going to share some goodies with you! And, if you sign up for my newsletter, I’ll send…

On this day marking the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, I’ve found myself asking some questions about what the Church today could be like, had things happened differently. What we know for certain is that the Catholic Church in 1517 was in many ways corrupt and…

Tending Two Shops by Rumi   Don’t run around this world looking for a hole to hide in. There are wild beasts in every cave! If you live with mice, the cat claws will find you. The only real rest comes when you’re alone with God. Live in the nowhere…

Happy summer, friends! I’ve been honored to read Michael Boyle’s reflections and responses to reading my book.  You can read his three part series here, here and here. First, let me say how much I appreciate his thoughtfulness. It’s really fun to engage in productive conversation about this book that…

My friend PostBarthian just shared some unpublished (for a wide audience) thoughts from Moltmann about original sin. Go read his post here. I’ll be responding to the whole of the post, but for reference here is the primary quote: Our definition of original sin therefore must be: 1) hybris and…

I was hoping to post a link to the archives of The Hardest Question, a lectionary blog that I loved writing for in years past. Unfortunately, I cannot seem to find the archived posts. So, I’m posting my reflections on the lectionary texts for Ascension Sunday here. I continue to…

Today’s selection is from The Way of Jesus Christ and includes an awesome word that you will want to know and use if you don’t already: plenipotentiary. YES! Bur first, we have to talk about those awkward demon stories… The expulsion of demons and the healing of the sick are…

Apologies in advance that this is a soap box of mine. But I find I am continually frustrated over the way we handle disagreement in the public square, and the ways we throw around the idea of tolerance as a way to squelch that disagreement. So I want to talk…

This week we continue in the same chapter as last week, as well as the same thought, which is that the cross means more than just personal salvation and it implicates us in a way of living toward others and for others. It leads us to love. From The Crucified God:…

As we are in the season of Lent, I wanted to bring you this paragraph from my favorite book, The Crucified God. It’s from his chapter entitled “Resistance of the Cross Against Its Interpretations” which may be my favorite chapter of the book because it remains so prophetic and necessary: The…

If you’re still looking to give something up for Lent, I’ve got an idea for you: give up original sin. Seriously, just consider letting it go. Try it out for six weeks and, if you really miss it, I guess you can do the weird thing of picking it up…

Happy Moltmann Monday! As we prepare for the beginning of Lent this Wednesday, I thought I would share this lovely passage from The Way of Jesus Christ about Jesus’ relationship with the Father. The special characteristic of Jesus’ relationship to God is made clear in the ‘Abba’ prayer… In Aramaic,…

Thanks to all of you who are reading Original Blessing and interacting with the ideas. As requested, we’ve put together a six week study guide that you can use for small groups, workshops, to help craft sermon series, or to use on your own as you go through the book….

It’s a cold and rainy Presidents Day here in Dallas this Moltmann Monday morning. I hope you are well where you find yourself. What I do know is that many of us are suffering from, or at least encountering, a good bit of anxiety these days, so today’s selection is…

Happy Moltmann Monday, friends. Today’s reading comes from God For a Secular Society in his chapter entitled “Covenant or Leviathan?” So let me talk briefly about that word Leviathan for a minute before we dive in. Leviathan is a word used in the Hebrew Scriptures to describe a giant monster….

I’ve had some conversations in recent days about how to hold onto original blessing while engaging actively in social justice. I love this question because one of the common misconceptions about original blessing is that it’s a worldview that requires you to hold everyone’s hand and sing camp songs and…

Hello all. As an extension of the post I wrote last week about victims, I want to extend the conversation with today’s selection from The Ethics of Hope. It’s in his chapter on “Divine and Human Righteousness and Justice” and he discusses how Christ is for both victim and perpetrator….

I grew up in a small West Texas town. If you don’t know anyone from West Texas you should know that we pride ourselves on being proactive, no-nonsense, to-the-point, I-don’t-need-your-help people. If you’ve ever read an apocalyptic novel, the author usually describes a landscape not unlike West Texas: dry desert…

Good afternoon, Moltmann friends. Today’s selection comes from a short edited collection of essays called A Passion for God’s Reign, from Moltmann’s essay entitled “Christianity and the Revaluation of the Values of Modernity.” He begins this section by referring to (and sorry for the rough transition but we’re going to…

Happy Moltmann Monday, all! In honor of MLK Day, I don’t think our German friend will mind if we spend this post reading some of King’s words. The section I’ve selected is from his 1964 report on the state of civil rights called “Hammer on Civil Rights.”*  He discusses police…

Today’s Moltmann Monday quote comes from The Crucified God in his chapter on the identity and relevance of faith. He begins by writing, In Christianity the cross is the test of everything which deserves to be called Christian. One may add that the cross alone, and nothing else, is its test,…

I spent some time this morning in Matthew’s gospel, and I found myself returning again and again to the ending phrase of Matthew 11:19- “But wisdom is proved to be right by her works.”  That’s odd, right? If you don’t stop to catch it, it’s easy to assume that wisdom…

Friends, if you were thinking about getting someone on your Christmas list (or yourself) Original Blessing for Christmas, this week is the time to do it. My publisher, Fortress, is having a 30% off sale on my book now through December 18th, plus free shipping. That means you can get the…

Morning, Moltmanniacs. Today’s reading is from God for a Secular Society in a chapter on the changing values of the modern world. The section, as you could guess from today’s blog title, is “Is the market to be the measure of all things?” It is no longer human needs which…

Hello Moltmanniac friends. Today’s selection comes from The Source of Life: The Holy Spirit and the Theology of Life in his chapter called “A Meditation on Hope.” I’ve been recalibrating my understanding of hope in the last few years, and if there is any declaration of hope I find most…

A few Mondays back in my Moltmann Monday post I shared part of a sermon in The Power of the Powerless called “The Consequences of Discipleship.” I want to share some more of it now, because I have found myself returning to its message often in these past few weeks….

As I’ve been processing the last week of events, I’ve also been talking a lot about original blessing, and hearing great thoughts and questions from people in the process. And I’ve noticed the obvious connection between the two, which is, as it happens, about the nature of connection. There’s so…

Friends, it has been quite a week. Many are feeling disoriented, disillusioned and maybe even a little prone to despair. A friend and mentor calls this the ambush of hope, that misstep of believing the world marches forward in a straight line of inevitable progress. That kind of hope is…

Happy Moltmann Monday! I’m continuing to share selections that relate to original blessing from Moltmann’s work, and this one comes from his most recent book, The Living God and the Fullness of Life. After he quotes Psalm 22:9-10, he goes on to say: Every child is born into God’s great…

It’s book release day! Original Blessing: Putting Sin in its Rightful Place has officially hit the shelves.  And while a celebratory glass of champagne is surely in order, as it turns out, a glass is also a foundational description of blessing. Here’s a sneak peek into the first chapter: We are…

Happy Moltmann Monday, all! Tomorrow is book release day (!!!), so today I want to share a selection from Ethics of Hope where Moltmann talks about the foundational definition of original blessing that I give in the book. In this paragraph, he is discussing the distinction between the image of…

Happy Moltmann Monday! Last week was happy indeed as I got to spend a day with Dr. Moltmann and hear him share his thoughts about the future of Christianity and the Church at the Unfinished Worlds conference at Emory. I appreciated not only his lecture but the wisdom I gleaned…

Guess what, friends? I will be with Professor Moltmann in Atlanta in TWO DAYS! Next Monday I’ll share thoughts from his lecture at Candler School of Theology, and hopefully post photos, too. Some other Moltmanniacs will be there, and I look forward to seeing them! Today’s excerpt comes from Moltmann’s…

I’m honored to be in such good company with the many scholars, theologians and pastors who contributed to this unique Bible edition. Accompanying the readable translation of the Common English Bible, 80 women from diverse backgrounds have written reflections and articles on the many women- named and unnamed- that are…

Today’s selection comes from Moltmann’s most recent book The Living God and the Fullness of Life. He’s talking about community and our role in society and as the church. I thought it was fitting to ponder today: The love for life creates community, but our late-capitalist societies are becoming class…

Last Sunday, I visited an Episcopal church for morning worship and found myself resting comfortably in the liturgy that formed much of my childhood. I didn’t grow up Episcopalian, but I attended an Episcopal school where daily chapel was my reality for a decade, and I credit that to much…

Today’s selection is from The Trinity and the Kingdom, in a section where Moltmann is offering a criticism of political and clerical monotheism. It’s a long section, but this excerpt gives us plenty of food for thought and gets to the heart of the matter: If we see the Almighty…

Happy Moltmann Monday! I recommended The Way of Jesus Christ to someone over the weekend as a good overarching Moltmann book, so I’m choosing today’s passage from there. It comes from his chapter on the Cosmic Christ, which sounds funky but really only means the scope of Jesus in relation…

As we near the release of my latest book, some people have mentioned that there is already a book–and not just any book, but a beloved book by Matthew Fox–which was published with the name Original Blessing twenty years ago. Why on earth would I choose to give my book the same…

Happy Moltmann Monday! Today’s selection comes from The Way of Jesus Christ in his section on the community of creation: The aggressive ethic of the modern world reflects the mentality of unreconciled human beings and their nihilistic dreams of almighty power. An ethic of reconciliation serves the common life of…

I’m still making my way slowly through my book of Hafiz’s poetry. For your weekend, here is one to remind us all of this deep world of connection and the beloved invitation we all receive always from God. We are at The Nile’s end. We are carrying particles From every…

Hi Moltmann friends! I hope you’re having a relaxing Labor Day today. I thought I’d share these sentences from Moltmann’s latest book The Living God and the Fullness of Life about the distinction between joy and fun. Just before this, Moltmann describes the parables of the lost coin, the lost…

Happy Moltmann Monday, friends! First of all, if you haven’t heard, our favorite German theologian will be coming to the U.S. this fall. You can find out all about it here. I will be there, so if you’re coming, let me know! Today’s reading comes from a little book called…

I’ve got a post up at the Unfundamentalist Parenting blog over at Patheos this week discussing raising our children with original blessing rather than original sin. Go check it out here. Thanks to Cindy for inviting me to share!

Happy Moltmann Monday! Today’s selection is from The Power of the Powerless, Moltmann’s collection of sermons. (I say this every time, but if you don’t have this book it’s one worth getting.) This is from a sermon on the story of Jesus’ transfiguration: Anyone who really lives his life with…

On a lighter note, I wanted to share three books I’ve read recently that I’ve really loved. If you’re looking for a good read over these last few weeks of summer, here are some worth considering: Consider the Birds: A Provocative Guide to Birds of the Bible by Debbie Blue….

Happy Moltmann Monday! Today’s selection is from The Spirit of Life in a chapter entitled “Theology of Mystical Experience” which is worth reading in its entirety. Here’s a small taste: Meditation is in fact an ancient method of arriving at knowledge which has been pushed aside by our modern activism….

I’ve been pondering the words of this poem by Hafiz a lot lately. I thought it was the perfect day to share it.   Let your Intelligence begin to rule Whenever you sit with others Using this sane idea: Leave all your cocked guns in a field Far from us,…

Happy Moltmann Monday! Today’s selection comes from Jesus Christ for Today’s World in his chapter on The Great Invitation: This is the true God: the one who in Christ takes the way of suffering to the point of death on the cross, so as to reconcile this faithless and torn…

This summer I’ve been on a Jane Austen kick. I’ve always loved her books, and my appreciation for her as a writer has only increased. (Such wit! What great characters!) As I was re-reading Emma, I got to that part where Emma and a good number of her neighbors are…

Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. -Matthew 16:24 I’ve been thinking about the idea of denying ourselves as Christians a lot lately, and to be honest, I have mixed feelings about it….

Happy Moltmann Monday! Today I want to share another selection from Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendel, from her book Rediscovering Friendship, which is laser-zapping good on the topic of Jesus, friendship, and the treatment of women: Yet another tradition of friendship has its roots in the New Testament, but it keeps being forgotten….

Friends, if you did not hear the news, Professor Moltmann’s beloved wife, Elisabeth, passed away on Tuesday, June 7. The Moltmanniac has a lovely post you can read here. Professor Moltmann has stayed close to home these last few years taking care of her. They met as young seminary academics,…

Welcome to Moltmann Monday: Midnight Edition! Just barely making the deadline today, after spending all day at a conference. But I wanted to share with you this selection from The Church in the Power of the Spirit, about the role of the church, and more to the point, the open…

A friend shared this article a couple of days ago from an English professor who was explaining to Yale undergrad why they have to read a basic canon of racist and colonialist and even misogynist literature to be considered properly educated in their field. Some Yale students were complaining about…

Stars Beneath Us by Paul Wallace is the most unique and faithful book on the intersection of faith and science I’ve ever read. Written from his personal experience as a boy caught between his developing faith and his increasing love for science, Wallace weaves a tale of deep wisdom about…

Happy Moltmann Monday, all! Today’s selection comes from The Living God and the Fullness of Life in a section on the doctrine of suffering in Buddhism and the doctrine of love in Paul’s letters. Love is the name we give the most intense experience of life. Human beings as we know…

Hi friends, For the next week, I’m in retreat in the mountains of beautiful Zion National Park. It’s come at a good time, now that the new book is finished and I can take an exhale. I’ll be back at the end of next week and will return to blogging…

Happy Moltmann Monday! Today’s excerpt comes from God in Creation in a section on the soul and the body: In the history of civilizations, ideas about ‘the self’ have undergone a remarkable transmigration. As long as the living character of the human being was seen in the inhaling and exhaling…

Since Earth Day was last week, I thought I’d do a belated Earth Day-edition Moltmann Monday for you, from this fantastic little section in Moltmann’s newest book, The Fullness of Life. If you want a quick, succinct description of a whole-earth Christian ecology, he gives you one in 5 pages….

Happy Moltmann Monday! I’m currently in Chicago at the Faith Forward conference having a lovely time. Today’s excerpt comes from The Way of Jesus Christ: If we look back at the creation story told in the Priestly Writing, we find the immanent unity of creation expressed in two formulas: 1. In…

In the past couple of weeks, I’ve found myself in profoundly different conversations with my middle school-aged kids, only to find myself talking to them at the end about attention. I guess that isn’t terribly surprising; attention is the engine driving middle school, after all. I remember telling my daughter…

Happy Moltmann Monday! If you didn’t hear, last week Professor Moltmann turned 90! So very happy birthday to him indeed. My friend Ben, the Moltmanniac, has a lovely top 10 post on his favorite Moltmann books to mark the occasion. I know we all join in wishing Professor Moltmann another…

I was in Seattle recently–Holy Week, actually–and I stopped inside a Catholic chapel in my friends’ neighborhood. This icon, known as Mary the Undoer of Knots, was on display. I’d never encountered it before, and something about it really resonated with me. We live in a society filled with people…

Today’s Moltmann Monday excerpt comes from his new book The Living God and the Fullness of Life on a section about embodied spirituality: As the word spirituality suggests, what we are talking about here is the seizure of the human being by God’s Spirit….But if the soul is defined through detachment…

1. The title is based on a quote the writers totally misunderstand. If you’re going to base two entire movies on a famous quote, go and read the source material first. As it happens, I highly doubt whoever wrote “God’s Not Dead” has read philosopher Frederick Nietzsche, or if they did,…

I don’t know about you, but I’m honestly beyond sick of politicians injecting Jesus into their platforms. I’m not saying faith isn’t political. It absolutely is; Jesus died a blatantly political death. But Jesus himself as the spokesperson of this party or that one? Color me skeptical and a little…

Happy Easter! Today’s selection comes from The Way of Jesus Christ in a section on the eschatological resurrection of Christ. If we look at the way these christophanies* and the Easter seeing of the men and women concerned were interpretatively perceived, we can discover three dimensions in their structure: The…

On this Good Friday, we ponder the Way of Sorrows, the Via Dolorosa, the path of Jesus toward the cross. Below is a reading of my chapter from Where Jesus Prayed on my attempt to pray the Lord’s Prayer while walking the Via Dolorosa. It’s an 8 minute meditation. Thanks…

Unsurprisingly, today’s Good Friday excerpt comes from The Crucified God, which includes a quote from German philosopher Hegel as an added little bonus: The faith which springs from the God event on the cross does not give a theistic answer to the question of suffering, why it must be as…

This Holy Week, I’ve been pondering what it must have been like for Jesus to let go of expectations. At heart, that’s what I think Holy Week required before anything else. And there were so. many. expectations of which he needed to let go: -the expectation of the disciples for…

Happy Moltmann Monday, fellow theology nerds! Today I’m sharing some thoughts from The Crucified God about what it means for the trinity when Jesus dies on the cross. This came up in a discussion last night, as it often does when discussing the terrifying notion that God died (stop dancing…

Happy Moltmann Monday! I’m back with a new post after my blogging hiatus over the past number of weeks. Thanks for your patience as I finished up my manuscript for book #3! :) Today’s selection comes from Moltmann’s newest book, The Living God and the Fullness of Life. He’s talking…

Hello friends! A few people have mentioned that they are using my latest book as a Lent devotional, which is lovely to hear. And, per my post last week, you know I believe it’s not too late to start up a Lent devotional! The book has 20 chapters, which means…

Today marks two weeks since the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday. Some of you have taken up a Lenten discipline of some sort, and some of you haven’t. And that’s fine. I’m certainly not writing this post to put the pressure on you; in fact, I’m writing it in…

Friends, just wanted to let you know that I’m hosting a giveaway on Goodreads for an autographed copy of Where Jesus Prayed. The contest runs from midnight, Tuesday January 12th, to midnight Tuesday, January 19th. You can enter to win here!  You can also find a link on the right side…

Hi friends, Happy New Year! I hope the last few weeks have afforded you time with loved ones, and some downtime besides. As we return to our regularly scheduled routines, I will be heading into my writing cave for the next couple of months. My manuscript deadline is drawing near,…

Merry almost Christmas, Moltmanniacs! In the spirit of the season, today’s selection comes from The Way of Jesus Christ in a section where Moltmann discusses the virgin birth. Because here is the thing: that particular ship has gone fairly off the rails, to the point that we no longer know…

As you may have heard, the long-awaited second season of the runaway hit podcast Serial debuted this morning. And I’ve spent the morning debating whether or not I’m going to listen. Like 100 million (and counting) other people, I binge-listened to the first season, which chronicled the story of Adnan Sayed…

Happy Moltmann Monday on this second week of Advent. Our selection comes from The Coming of God. Usually, I tend to stick to nativity/birth themes for Advent and leave the eschatology stuff for another time. This year I find myself thinking a lot about the “end of the world,” so…

I considered writing this morning about the cycle of violence, and peacemaking, and gun control. I considered talking (again) about the danger of fear and how it brings us to dangerous and often unhealthy reactions and how Jesus, if he teaches us anything, shows us how not to do any…

Hello friends! As yesterday was the first Sunday of Advent, today’s Moltmann Monday excerpt comes from The Way of Jesus Christ in a section on Jesus as Messiah: Who is this ‘son of man?’ Initially he was quite simply ‘the son of a human being,’ a particular example of the…

Well last week was a fantastic one for many Moltmann fans. Our favorite German professor attended AAR/SBL, the Comic-Con of the religious academic world, where he presented lectures, spoke on panels, took lots of very adorable selfies with fans, and signed copies of the 40th anniversary edition of The Crucified…

In a couple of weeks, Christians around the world will enter the season of Advent, where we wait for the Light as we walk toward Christmas. Waiting is difficult because it requires us to acknowledge we do not have control over the future. Waiting on God is vulnerable before it can be…

As the weekend brought us stories of terror from our brothers and sisters in Paris, I bring to you today a selection from The Crucified God. As it happens, the 40th anniversary edition was just released from Fortress Press, so if you have not yet read this book, this is…

Local friends, just wanted to remind you that I’ll be around town twice in the next month signing books at these two fine establishments. I would love to see you there! The first is Saturday, November 14th from 2-4pm at Logos Bookstore. Logos is a fantastic independent Christian bookstore located…

Moltmann friends, it’s been a big weekend. Those of you who pre-ordered Moltmann’s latest book, The Living God and the Fullness of Life, most likely have found it in your mailbox. I have only just started reading mine, but I am loving it so far (surprise to no one ever)….

For the past decade, my community of faith, Journey, has been in partnership with Pastor Steven Turikunkiko, his wife Providance and their family, friends and neighbors. We have shared stories and written letters and supported one another in doing the work of building communities of peace and generosity and reconciliation….

It’s Moltmann Monday, and today’s selection comes from God for a Secular Society. I admit, it’s my least favorite title (it feels falsely dualistic and not exactly demonstrative of what the book is about), but the contents are really great. I’m sharing a section entitled Is the market to be…

This is my second year as a tutor through Reading Partners, which is a fantastic program that fosters literacy in local schools. If you happen to have an hour a week during school hours to share, I highly encourage you to consider giving that hour to Reading Partners in a…

My friend Cat and I have been having a conversation about vocation and work, and she sent me this fantastic article Dorothy Sayers wrote in the middle of World War II entitled, Why Work?   Sayers makes the very interesting case that wartime actually does something to benefit the way we engage…

Happy Moltmann Monday! Today’s passage comes from Sun of Righteousness, Arise! in a chapter on evolution and Christian theology, and in a section on new research in neurobiology. The frame of reference for interpreting the evolution of life does not have to be the ‘war of nature’ and the ‘struggle…

Last Sunday at Journey, we walked the labyrinth at a nearby park. (They didn’t have a labyrinth; in true Journey creative fashion, one of our Elders borrowed a chalker from a friend who runs a softball field and just made one!) As we walked, there were poems and quotes to…

Happy Moltmann Monday! Today’s selection comes from The Way of Jesus Christ in a section discussing Jesus’ acceptance of outcasts (bold mine) where he basically asks this pointed question of us: On whose backs are we gaining our righteousness? It’s worth considering. The Pharisees despised ‘the country people’ because they did…

Friends, Patheos has a whole page of Where Jesus Prayed-related things, including articles, interviews and excerpts. (And soon to come, reviews!) If you haven’t had a chance to go take a look yet, you can do so here at the Patheos Book Club. Or, you can pick and choose from…

Happy Moltmann Monday! It also happens to be Columbus Day, so I thought we might benefit from hearing Moltmann talk with us about ecological rights, human rights, and how they are inextricably connected. So our excerpt today comes from Ethics of Hope in chapter 15. It’s a little dense, so read…

If you’ve seen the cover of my new book, or any of the Facebook ads, you’ve already seen the beautiful photos of Carter Rose. If you happen to live in Dallas, then you’ve seen his work everywhere- in the Dallas Morning News, in Luxe magazine or Dallas Child, in a…

I’m so honored to have been part of Faith Forward for the past 4 years. Faith Forward is a conference that brings together children’s and youth ministry leaders for a time of collaboration, resourcing and inspiration. We’re all in this together, reimagining faith formation for the next generation, holding onto…

Happy Moltmann Monday! Today’s excerpt comes from a little collection of essays called A Passion for God’s Reign. Thanks to my Moltmann Facebook group, I was reminded of a quote from one of Moltmann’s essays, “Theology in the Project of the Modern World” and had to go and reread it….

In case you haven’t read it, I wanted to post a copy of Moltmann’s final letter to executed death row inmate Kelly Gissendaner. You can read more about their relationship here. It feels shallow to attempt to comment on it, so I’ll just let you read it for yourselves. Pray…

Friends, today is the official release date for Where Jesus Prayed! I know, I know. It came early, which was such a FUN surprise! But in the spirit of the official date, I wanted to share with you the chapter I wrote from one of my favorite places, Tabgha. Enjoy! 3…

I’ve been interested in the work and writings of Margaret Wheatley for many years now. I just read her book, with Deborah Frieze, Walk Out Walk On: A Learning Journey Into Communities Daring to Live the Future Now. They used the title “Walk Out, Walk On” to describe those who…

Happy Moltmann Monday! In honor of the official book release date for Where Jesus Prayed (October 1, though I’m so delighted it arrived early!) I’m sharing an excerpt from the preface to The Coming of God: Christian Eschatology. That’s right, friends. Before you even get to the numbered pages in a…

If I ever had a fairy godmother, it was Phyllis Tickle. Fairy godmothers look out for you and keep watch over you, and they have wide and hopeful eyes for your possibilities. They believe in you, and because they believe in you, they give you some helpful nudges here and…

I’m grateful to have met some great people while in seminary. One of those people is Jen Bird, who has spent her career engaging in difficult texts related to power, gender, and sexuality. She is bright, inquisitive, and bold. (She’s also a fun person to have living down the hall…

Last month, comedian John Oliver confronted the problem of televangelism and the prosperity gospel head on during an episode of Last Week Tonight. As a way of showing how easy it is to claim nonprofit status and get people to send you money, he set up a church himself, called…

If you’re in Dallas, join us as we celebrate the official book release of Where Jesus Prayed! My amazing photographer friend Carter Rose, who graciously shared his Holy Land photos in the book, will be there as well, and get this: he is giving away a framed print of one of the…

Happy Moltmann Monday! Today’s excerpt comes from The Source of Life, which is a small little easy read book that is a great starting point for anyone who’s just getting to know Moltmann. I’m going to share the beginning of his chapter on prayer. (italics are his, bold is mine)…

I love that coloring books for adults are having a moment. Once in college, an Aladdin coloring book found its way into our apartment. I don’t remember if I bought it as a joke or if someone gave it to me as a joke, but I do remember taking it…

This morning, National Geographic published a fascinating and mind-blowing article about a recent archeological discovery of a new human ancestor. It is being hailed as one of the biggest fossil discoveries in fifty years- and that’s before we even understand the scope of it. (My friend Cat and I were…

This past June, I traveled to Princeton for a conference and brought along my thirteen year old daughter and my seventeen year old niece. While there, we went on a campus tour, and though admittedly I’m already a die-hard fan of liberal arts education, and Princeton is one of my…

I’ve told you before, friends: Moltmann’s collection of sermons, The Power of the Powerless, is so very good. Honestly, just go order it. You can send me a thank you note. Today’s excerpt is from his sermon on Moses based on Exodus 4:10-16, entitled “The Calling of the Unworthy.” I…

The intersection of work and faith is complicated. When your job requires you to do something that goes against your faith convictions, what do you do? Let’s start off by being honest in admitting this: every single kind of work in the world is going to go against your faith-inspired values…

I had so much fun as the guest host on LectioCast over the last month! LectioCast is a weekly podcast discussion on the lectionary texts, hosted by New Testament scholar Daniel Kirk (and featuring guest hosts like me!) They’re less than 30 minutes, so it’s a perfect way to ponder insights and…

Happy Moltmann Monday! Today’s excerpt is from The Spirit of Life, in a chapter where he’s talking about meditation and contemplation. I’ve bolded my two favorite parts: Christian meditation is not transcendental meditation. It is a meditation on an object. It is at its innermost heart meditatio passionis et mortis…

Hi friends, My next book is nearly here, and I am excited to say it’s being included in Paraclete Press’ summer sale this week! That means you can pre-order a copy for under $10, 45% off the cover price! That’s better than you’ll find anywhere, and you’ll get it the…

Happy Moltmann Monday! Today I want to share an excerpt from Elizabeth Moltmann-Wendel’s book, I Am My Body. Yes, Moltmann has a rock star wife who also has a PhD in theology. Her book is accessible and readable, more of an overview and conversation starter. Of course, as you can…

Happy Moltmann Monday! I’m feeling philosophical today, so fair warning it gets a little nerdy here but this is all actually important to your lived life. So, here’s your selection from Experiences in Theology in his chapter on “The logic of promise:” Augustine rightly rejected creation in time (creatio in tempore)…

Happy Moltmann Monday! Today’s excerpt is coming from a unique place- a hand-typed letter from Moltmann to Wyatt Houtz, known also around the interwebs as @PostBarthian. Can we talk about how unbelievably kind and amazing it is that Moltmann responds to so many people who write him? You can read the…

In early June, I saw a posting on my neighborhood blog about overcrowding at the Dallas Animal Shelter. I don’t know what I was thinking when I clicked the link and began scrolling through the pictures; we have two dogs already, and a year ago my husband and I sat…

When I was a retirement community chaplain just after I graduated seminary, I was also the mother of two very young children. I often recognized the strengths I needed for one were beneficial for the other: listening, a willingness to move more slowly, wide-eyed wonder, respect for the now-ness of…

Happy Moltmann Monday! Today’s reading comes from The Source of Life, which is one of Moltmann’s lighter reads intended for everyone. The excerpt is from the very beginning, where he is simply (and beautifully) describing the Holy Spirit: The gift and the presence of the Holy Spirit is the greatest…

Happy Moltmann Monday! Today’s selection comes from Ethics of Hope, where Moltmann is talking about consumption, consumerism and how it clashes with our identity in God: A society which takes the growth of its production of goods and services as the yardstick of its health is forced to increase consumption….

A few weeks ago, I found myself at Princeton Seminary for the second time in a month, on the occasion of the Karl Barth Conference. I was there to see Moltmann, which did not disappoint. :) But I was also able to hear lectures from a number of scholars across…

Happy Moltmann Monday! I’ve chosen a passage from The Coming of God today in a section on “The End of Space in the Presence of God.” Now, I know talking philosophically about space (and/or time) is annoying for the vast majority of people, but fear not. Moltmann comes with metaphors,…

Hello from Princeton where I joyously spent my Moltmann Monday morning with Professor Moltmann himself! (And unabashedly approached him at the banquet last night, where my daughter- who came along to meet this theologian her mom always talks about- snapped this picture). He came to kick off the opening lecture…

When I traveled to the Holy Land last year, I saw so many beautiful churches. The Church of the Multiplication in Tabgha was my favorite. As if this week wasn’t marked enough by hate already, apparently there was an arson attack on the church yesterday. The perpetrator left a message…

Like many of you, I woke up this morning to news of the terrible tragedy in Charleston. My heart is broken, and like many of you I am sending heavy-laden prayers to the families and the Charleston community. But I also spent time this morning with heavy-laden prayers for our…

Happy Moltmann Monday! Today’s selection comes from Ethics of Hope, which, if you didn’t know, is a more recent addition to Moltmann’s canon of books and a pretty readable one at that. If you’re looking for an overview of his theology related to contemporary issues, this is a good pick….

Happy Moltmann Monday! Today’s reading comes from Jesus Christ for Today’s World. It incorporates four things I adore: Moltmann, fairy tales, philosophy and theology. At the end, it also incorporates some thoughts about the events in McKinney, not at all because I love talking about it but because I think…

Hi friends! As you’ve probably noticed, the blog has been quiet the last couple of weeks, due to what I lovingly call the insanity that is the end of the year. Now that summer is upon us, I will be traveling in and out every month and will also be…

**Two disclaimers: first, obviously, spoilers ahead, so don’t read if you haven’t watched the finale. Second, I’ve read some fantastic pieces on this episode, and I can agree with all of them, which is a testament to the depth and range of this show. What’s missing, to me, is a…

Happy Moltmann Monday! Today’s excerpt comes from Theology of Hope, in a section on the resurrection (bold mine): When the question of the reality of the resurrection is raised today, then it mostly takes the form: Is he risen?…Is he risen in the sense of a reality accessible to ‘historical…

The last thing you need is one more person spouting hot air about all of this “Christianity in decline” business, and yet here I am… mostly because I have been trying to figure out why I’m so frustrated about all of this. Well, specifically, the way some people are talking…

This Moltmann Monday, I want to share a passage from The Spirit of Life with you, which I hope will help us think theologically about recent issues in Baltimore, and about the systemic racism in our country that keeps rearing its ugly head. It comes from a section on “the…

Last week at Faith Forward, I had such a great time getting to know the Webb family. We talked ice cream and dessert, favorite books, swapped handshakes, and even practiced our handstands in the hallway. Matt, Eva, Jack, Solveig and Evie came to share with us about their One Year Road…

I know there are plenty of voices weighing in on what’s going on in Baltimore (and what went on in Ferguson), but I heard Malcolm Gladwell speak recently, and I think his insights are applicable here, and worth sharing. Gladwell was speaking about legitimacy. (If you have time, I highly…

Happy Moltmann Monday! In light of Earth Day last week, I’m sharing a section of God in Creation today, from the very beginning of the book where Moltmann outlines some guiding ideas for his ecological theology (bold mine, italics Moltmann’s) Modern thinking has developed by way of an objectifying, analytical,…

Happy belated Earth Day! In honor of our beautiful planet, I’m sharing four simple ways you can be more earth-friendly. I am no eco-expert, but over the years our family has slowly integrated earth-friendliness into our routines, and honestly? It’s not that difficult. I am the queen of low maintenance, so I’m not…

I know, I know. Me and my Hebrew words. What can I say? I love them. I love, love, love them. I can’t believe I let my Hebrew lapse so badly. (Well, I can. It’s called grad school and children and jobs. But still. Such a tragedy.) Anyway, I actually…

Happy Moltmann Monday! Today’s selection comes from Sun of Righteousness, Arise! in a chapter on the resurrection of nature (bold mine): The resurrection of the dead takes place on this earth, and leads those who have been made alive to ‘a new earth according to his promise in which righteousness…

So, I’ll admit, I find it really fun to theologize pop songs. Because let’s be honest, anybody can find meaning in an Indigo Girls song, or in the latest Mumford album. But finding some depth to Taylor Swift is a more interesting challenge. (Also, just imagine how serious I would…

The Bible can be used in any number of ways, but I believe the primary way we are to encounter Scripture is aloud, in community. That’s what it is designed for. It’s a story to be told aloud, from one person to another, from generation to generation. And though this…

Last week, my church Journey partnered with Warren Avenue Christian Church to host #NoMoreBlood: A Good Friday Stations of the Cross Remembrance in honor of people of color killed by state brutality. At each of the 14 stations, we looked at the intersection of Christ’s passion with the stories of…

Alleluia and Happy Easter! Today we are talking about very big, very important things. Our MM quote comes from The Way of Jesus Christ, in a section about resurrection, of course. The bold words are mine…I wanted to make sure these zingers really got your attention: Christ’s death and his…

Happy Moltmann Monday, but more importantly, blessed Holy Week to you all. (Not happy…happy holy week would be a strange thing to say.) As we prepare to ponder the last week of Jesus’ life before Easter, here are some thoughts from The Way of Jesus Christ: Jesus died the death…

As it’s near Passover, this installation of The Word is a Hebrew word that is also a prayer and a song. Dayenu is a combination of “enough” and “to us” and is most often translated “it would have been enough.” It hails from the 9th century Haggadah, and it has…

Happy Moltmann Monday! Today’s excerpt is from The Way of Jesus Christ in a section entitled “Christ the Redeemer of Evolution.” I hope it will serve as a Lenten devotional as we seek to finish strong in these 40 days awaiting Easter. Creation is not a work once performed and…

Y’all: I heard the craziest story recently. I’ve mentioned the Philosophy Bites podcast here before, which has wonderfully short little snippets of philosophy nerd-dom. This particular episode, “Daniel Everett on the Nature of Language,” was talking about the Piraha (pronounced pee-dah-hawn) people in the Amazon. Everett has spent years and…

Happy Moltmann Monday! I’m straying from a theological book choice today and instead sharing a short paragraph from Moltmann’s autobiography A Broad Place. (You should read this. So many fantastic stories, plus insights into his life among family, colleagues, etc. You’ll just love him all the more for it.) He…

For the last few weeks I’ve had some conversations with pastors of both big and small churches, talking about the future and different struggles they’re facing. A lot of this is based on size and resources, which, depending on the level your church has of each, can create vastly different…

Happy Moltmann Monday! Today’s excerpt comes from The Politics of Discipleship and Discipleship in Politics. It’s a collection of lectures by Moltmann and responses by Mennonite scholars. I’m bringing you a section from the end of his lecture on “Political Theology and Political Hermeneutics.” The human person is not a…

As you may know, late Monday evening something of a miracle happened…for a second time. Kelly Gissendaner, a death row inmate in Georgia, was scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection. It had been scheduled for the previous week, which was delayed due to weather. And on Monday,…

Friends, no excerpt today. The work of theology I want to share today comes from Moltmann’s life, not his books. Over the weekend the New York Times ran an article about a death row inmate in Georgia who has become friends with Moltmann. Kelly Gissendaner is scheduled to be put…

Happy Moltmann Monday! Since I talked about perichoresis last week, I thought I’d share with you some of Moltmann’s thoughts on the perichoretic dance of the trinity. It comes from The Trinity and the Kingdom, naturally. An eternal life process takes place in the triune God through the exchange of…

I’m a big proponent of having church be a space where we talk together about God, rather than a space where people come to listen to one “expert” talk about God. And when you’re cultivating that space, whether it’s during a Sunday gathering, as it is in my church, or…

Friends, I’m going to share one of my favorite words with you today. And yes, I learned about it from Moltmann. The word is perichoresis. You pronounce it perry-ko-ray-sis. (When Moltmann says it, he sort of drags out and softens the last two syllables, so it sounds like “perry-ko-reeeeyzzzsssis.”) Perichoresis…

Happy Moltmann Monday! I’m going to share with you a small snippet of a sermon Moltmann wrote on the Beatitudes, from his book The Power of the Powerless. I’ve said this before, but that’s a great little book that’s under the radar, and as it’s sermons, it’s very readable for…

I met Erin Lane in 2009 when she was working at the publishing company that published my first book. In that serendipitous way that sometimes happens, our paths have continued to cross over the years. I appreciated her work in Talking Taboo, and I loved reading her heartfelt stories of…

Some days when I’m walking my dogs around the neighborhood, I listen to this great little podcast called Philosophy Bites. They’re short, 20 minute conversations with philosophers about a wide range of topics. I was listening to Jesus as Philosopher with Don Cupitt, who is NOT trying to do theology…

Happy Moltmann Monday! Today’s selection comes from The Church in the Power of the Spirit in a chapter where he’s discussing what it means for the Church to be called Jesus’ Church. The Church must first of all reflect and represent the lordship of Christ in itself. It cannot adopt…

Earlier this week on Patheos, Emergent friends shared their thoughts about where we are and where we are going. We are riding a new wave of emergence where action and contemplation meet, where new theological rubber is hitting the road. I think it’s an interesting time across the landscape of…

A few months ago, my friend Travis Reed came into town, and we met for coffee. It was a good conversation, as conversations with Travis always are. I enjoyed hearing about all that’s happening in his life. I loved getting a glimpse into the great things he’s witnessing and putting…

I’m a pretty direct person. I appreciate nuance and subtlety as much as the next person, of course, but if you ask me a question like “Does this look good?” I’m not going to tell you the pros and cons and add in a few compliments and then vaguely suggest…

Happy Moltmann Monday! As promised, I’m sharing a few other thoughts about communion from our German friend. It comes from Church in the Power of the Spirit, as did the sections I highlighted two weeks ago. Although the Lord’s supper has its historical origin in Jesus’ feasts, it itself none…

My week has been filled with conversation about race and racism this week, beginning with Dallas Dinner Table on Monday and including a Diversity Dinner and workshop last night at my children’s school. But here is the comment that keeps coming back to me, over and over again. At that…

Jesus was a minority. But you know that already, right? You know that Jesus was Jewish, and you know the New Testament has stories that show the tensions between Jews and Samaritans, Jews and Romans, etc. That’s ethnic tension. That’s politically charged tension that came from Jesus being born into…

Awareness is the first step, right? So I thought today during my week of blogging about race, I’d simply provide a list of facts and studies that show the problem of racism as alive, well, and harmful. First, do you want to get a read on your own biases? Take…

Last night, my church, Journey, was one of many to host Dallas Dinner Table, a once-a-year set of small table dinner gatherings across the metroplex to engage in respectful conversation about race. I had never participated before, and I was really honored to be a part of it. I love the…

Happy Moltmann Monday! As it coincides with Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I thought I’d share an excerpt from a chapter in Experiences in Theology called “Black Theology for Whites.” I love the title alone, actually, because it already makes many of us pause and consider which perspective we’re coming…

Where Jesus Prayed: Illuminations on the Lord’s Prayer in the Holy Land will be out October 1, 2015! In the video I talk about the book and the story of how it came to be.  

Happy Moltmann Monday! Today I’m posting some of Moltmann’s thoughts on communion, per request from the PostBarthian. There’s so much here, so I’ll follow up next week with more. For now, I’m starting at the beginning of a long section on the Lord’s Supper in Church in the Power of…

Well. I just read the Newsweek article everybody’s apparently talking about. It sounds like a lot of people have been thinking of translation and literary theory these days, even when they’re not listening to Taylor Swift songs. I have many thoughts about the article, but since it’s Wednesday, I thought…

American Music Awards 2014   Guys, I’m about to use a pop song to talk about philosophy and literary method, but only because it’s the only way I could explain a Taylor Swift song to my kids. Did you guys see Taylor Swift perform”Blank Space” at the American Music Awards? I know…

Friends, torture and brutality surround us these days. Our inclination is to turn away, but our faith requires us to stay put, to listen, to speak out. So today, here are some words of wisdom from our German friend who does not speak of torture from a distance, but as…

Yes, I chose a well-known word this time around. Why? Because even normal words are awesome, and because many of them have great stories attached. So, in light of Advent (see what I did there), this week’s Word is votive. We know votives as the word we use for small…

Happy Moltmann Monday! Since Advent is a time when we stand in the overlap of the Kingdom among us and the Kingdom to come, today’s selection comes from Jesus Christ for Today’s World* when Moltmann’s discussing that very topic: Is the kingdom of God present or future? Is it something…

The recurring argument I seem to be hearing in relation to recent conversations about Rob Bell is about whether Bell is “orthodox” and whether he’s “evangelical.” I think a lot of our conversation on both points is based on how we define those terms. So for this week’s The Word (a day…

Can I rant for a minute about the once-again-fashionable dog-piling on Rob Bell? He’s been circulating Twitter and FB feeds recently, first because of his new show on the Oprah channel, and second, because he has a new book coming out about marriage called The Zimzum of Love.* Most recently, I read…

Happy Moltmann Monday, and happy first week of Advent! I snagged a passage from The Way of Jesus Christ where he’s dialoguing a bit with the work of Martin Buber, but you don’t need to be familiar with that to get what he’s saying. (I’m just saying it for you nerds…

    With a nod to Thanksgiving tomorrow, this week’s Word (which is a phrase, because I cheat like that) comes from our Jewish brothers and sisters. Hakarat Hatov literally means “recognizing the good.” It’s a practice of giving thanks for the good things all around us. Hakarat hatov is about…

Anna Garforth Happy Moltmann Monday, all! On this Thanksgiving week I thought I’d share this excerpt from Ethics of Hope, where Moltmann summarizes much of what he lays out in God in Creation about the Sabbath as the feast of creation, which I’ve talked about before (Bold words mine): On the…

Happy Moltmann Monday! I’m writing today from a very rainy New York City and I’m in a The Way of Jesus Christ mood so here’s your quote for today: If the surrender of Jesus on the cross is understood as a sacrifice made to appease the Father’s wrath…then the Father…

Happy Moltmann Monday! Today’s selection is from God for a Secular Society where he’s talking about the importance of wonder: Knowing is remembrance and expectation, remembrance of what is familiar and expectation of what is new. It is therefore both re-cognition and a fresh cognition… The Greek philosophers therefore called the…

I know All Saints was Saturday, but I just listened to the On Being podcast with Marie Howe this week, which….WOW…may be the best podcast I’ve ever heard. I so appreciate Krista Tippett holding space for these conversations about the holy, and boy did that become thin, holy space during…

When I was in seminary, my required church history class had an optional Friday session where we could learn about Christian art and symbolism. It was at 8am, which, if you don’t know me, is basically my idea of the worst thing ever. Nevertheless, nerd that I am, I went…

Happy Moltmann Monday, all! In honor of All Saints Day, I wanted to share with you a snippet of a really fantastic passage from The Way of Jesus Christ where Moltmann talks about the community of the living and the dead. It goes on for a few pages, and I’ve skipped…

When I started studying religion, I realized there were A LOT OF TERMS. In particular, it took me a while to get all of the  “-ologies” straight. How many sub-sets of theology can there be?! Turns out, there are quite a few. So, I thought I’d do you a solid…

    Hi all and happy Moltmann Monday! Since I talked about the word zimsum last week, I thought it appropriate to share a portion from God in Creation where Moltmann discusses this idea further: The existence of a world outside God is made possible by an inversion of God….

There’s been a lot of discussion recently on the story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22, thanks to Rachel Held Evans’ post. She also has some follow-up resources that are great. When I was pregnant with my now ten year old son, I was tasked with preaching this text,…

So, I’m a confessed logophile. I love words. I think it’s one of the reasons I enjoyed learning languages, and probably why Hebrew was my favorite. (They have the best words!) In college and seminary, I learned a whole host of new words to help me discuss and understand things…

Happy Moltmann Monday! Today’s selection is from The Church in the Power of the Spirit in a chapter on the Church of the Kingdom of God (bold mine): Historically, mission and the spread of Christianity created certain particular centers: the Roman empire, Europe, and America. As a result a Christianity…

I’ll admit, I’m no baseball fan. But I’m a huge sucker for a good underdog story, especially if the underdogs break a few conventional rules along the way. Did you know the Kansas City Royals had the worst home run record of the season?! And yet, they’re now headed to the World…

Happy Moltmann Monday, all! Today I’m sharing a section from Sun of Righteousness, Arise! where Moltmann is talking about the presence of God: I am not a historian, and not a biblical scholar either. I am merely a Christian theologian. That is to say, I am a Christian who struggles with…

Yesterday I talked about a few things to keep in mind when reading the Book of Revelation. Today, I’d like to do a quick little exegesis (interpretation) of Revelation 6:1-8 to illustrate how our perception of this passage changes when we understand the symbolism. Before we begin, I want to…

So friends, you might know that I have a bit of a soft spot for the Book of Revelation. I wouldn’t say it’s my favorite, but I feel bad for the poor thing; it is so terribly misunderstood, and so misused. And really, it’s a pretty awesome book. It’s social…

Happy Moltmann Monday! I’m going to be talking a lot about eschatology (doctrine of “last things”) this week, so to kick us off, here’s a section from The Coming of God: Christian Eschatology (bold mine): Every hope is equivocal. It can fill the present with new power, but it can…

As you may know, that Left Behind movie came out this week. I thought this would be a perfect time to remind everyone that the Bible ENCOURAGES us to get left behind. We are supposed to stay here. HERE, on earth. Where the kingdom of God is coming. I wrote…

Happy Moltmann Monday! I’m in a Theology of Hope kind of mood, so today’s selection comes from this section where he’s talking about how we become humanized when we follow God. (I mean, we could just stop there and have enough to think about already, right?!) Note: Moltmann wrote this…

Happy Moltmann Monday! Today’s selection comes from God in Creation where Moltmann distinguishes the difference between a parable and a promise: It is theologically necessary to view created things as real promises of the kingdom; and it is equally necessary, conversely, to understand the kingdom of God as the fulfillment,…

This summer I was doing research for a project I’ll be working on this year and next, and part of that research was getting the lay of the land on parenting books and information that’s out there. So, in typical Danielle fashion, I read every last parenting book I could…

It seems like a good half of my friends were commenting last week on A.O. Scott’s article in the NY Times: The Death of Adulthood in American Culture. It is a fantastic, thought-provoking article. It could perhaps be summed up best in these two sentences: Something profound has been happening in…

Happy Moltmann Monday! I was THRILLED on Friday when Moltmanniac posted a video from Yale of a discussion between Moltmann and his student, Miroslav Volf. You can watch the video and read the entire transcript here. (You should watch the video, because he’s the cutest.) I wanted to highlight one…

Two days ago, Apple and U2 came together to upload U2’s new album free to its 500 million users. It magically showed up in our iTunes libraries, where all one had to do was download it from the Cloud. Despite the fact that I’m what easily could be called U2’s…

Over the last decade, as I’ve spoken with and pastored many evangelicals/pentecostals/post-evangelicals, I’ve come across this notion, time and again, of the absolute necessity of praying “in Jesus’ name.” If you, like me, did not grow up evangelical/pentecostal, allow me to explain by recapping the first conversation of this kind…

Happy Moltmann Monday! Today’s selection is from The Source of Life. He’s talking about the life of creation, and I love the picture he gives here of the interconnection of Word and Spirit: According to Wisdom literature (Ecclesiastes, for example), this creative Wisdom can also be called God’s Word or…

Happy Moltmann (Tuesday)! I hope your Labor Day was relaxing and enjoyable. Today’s excerpt comes from The Politics of Discipleship and Discipleship in Politics.  It’s in a chapter discussing how to follow Jesus in a time of nuclear war. The whole chapter is worth quoting, but I’ll limit myself today to a…

Today’s Moltmann Monday reading comes from Jesus Christ for Today’s World. It’s a great little book of essays and pretty readable, too. He talks often in this book about the arms race, and about Chernobyl, and I was saddened as I skimmed through it this morning that, though these events…

It’s that time of year again. Ready or not, parents are gearing up for the flurry of activity that always accompanies the first weeks of school. A perennial nerd, I love this time of year. It always feels like a more natural New Years Day, where resolutions and new intentions…

Happy Moltmann Monday! This morning’s selection comes from one of my favorite books, The Church in the Power of the Spirit. Moltmann is talking about the concept of friendship and how central it is to the life of faith- and as a posture of the Church. Open friendship is such…

If the interwebs are any indication, I worry sometimes that as Christians we are not altogether certain how this forgiveness business works. Rules of forgiveness? you may scoff. That seems harsh and wrong and unfeeling! But no- it isn’t. There are good and bad ways to forgive and ask forgiveness….

My friend Chris Schmidt, who always posts the best articles on his FB page, posted another fabulous one yesterday from the New Yorker called The Scourge of Relatability. You should go read it, and then come back. Did you? Did you? I hope so. If not (sigh), then here’s a…

Happy Moltmann Monday! Since I talked a little about the relationship between heaven and earth (and new heaven and new earth) last night at Journey, and because I recently mentioned how a theologian’s personal life DOES get reflected in their theology, I thought this would be just the passage for…

Well, dear friends, many of you ask me often about what I’m working on, so I thought I’d give an update. I wrote a book after returning from my trip to the Holy Land, and I’m delighted to say it’s going to be published. Soon I’ll be able to tell you more…

Happy Moltmann Monday! Last night at Journey we were talking about creation care and it made me think of this passage from Jesus Christ for Today’s World. Moltmann uses some questions about the kingdom to clarify his theological positions. Here’s his second clarifying question, and his response: Does the Kingdom of…

I’m going to do something a little different this morning. Instead of posting an excerpt, I’d like to talk about my German friend in relation to a post I read on Patheos last week from Roger Olson. He asked whether a theologian’s life should matter when we are studying his/her…

Happy Moltmann Monday, all! Today’s selection is from The Politics of Discipleship and Discipleship in Politics. Moltmann is talking about political theology and how the messianic hope of Christ has real-life implications: The religious question of modern times is: ‘What may I hope for?’…The universal question about the future concentrates here…

Yes, I am. I’m talking about the Spurs on my blog. And yes, it’s because I love them and because I’m still overjoyed that they won Sunday night. But it’s also because their win showcases so much of why I love them. And in those qualities the Church can find…

Hello friends! This morning’s quote from my very favorite German comes from Ethics of Hope. I think it’s good to be reminded often that Jesus as the Son of God is a surprising revelation of who God is and how God loves. In the raising and exaltation of Christ, God…

  Happy Pentecost, everyone! In honor of my favorite, blazing-red holy day, today’s Moltmann Monday excerpt comes from The Spirit of Life (bold mine): To experience the fellowship of the Spirit inevitably carries Christianity beyond itself into the greater fellowship of all God’s creatures. For the community of creation, in which all…

I had the great honor of meeting Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso at last week’s Faith Forward conference. I was already a big fan of her books (In God’s Name, God’s Paintbrush) and I was delighted to learn that she was even more wonderful and engaging in person. (Don’t you just…

I had lunch with my mom today, just the two of us. We talked about everything from the littlest detail of our daily reality to the biggest crises we see going on in the world, because that’s what we do, what we’ve always done, when we talk. When we were…

It’s still Eastertide, so this morning’s Moltmann Monday selection is about resurrection, from Sun of Righteousness, Arise! . He’s describing how English speakers found it problematic to figure out how to translate “resurrectio carnis” because we feel weird about saying “flesh” so we use “body” instead. We seemed to settle on the…

Happy MM, guys. Today’s selection comes from The Source of Life. This is a great little book that summarizes much of Moltmann’s thoughts on the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of faith, and it’s written in everyday language, so if you’re someone who likes his ideas but…

Happy Easter, all! Today’s MM quote comes from The Way of Jesus Christ in his chapter on the Eschatological Resurrection of Christ. Moltmann succintly distinguishes the Easter event from springtime cycles of life, which I think is a helpful thing for us to consider: The rhythms of creation- night to day, winter…

I’m remembering two places I visited in Jerusalem. First, not surprisingly, is the Church of All Nations, which is located in Gethsemane. This may sound strange to say, but it was one of the most meaningful and beautiful churches I visited on my entire trip. It’s hard in a photograph…

I’m excited to be doing an event in Houston on May 9-10 with the good people at Zeteo Church (which is pastored by former Journeyer Jenni Martin Fairbanks-woot!). Pete Rollins will be leading the way, dialoguing about faith, belief, doubt, and all the spaces in between. From the event page: “By employing…

Happy Moltmann Monday, all. Today’s selection is from Experiences in Theology where Moltmann will engage mirror images of liberation theology (p.183). Before he does that, though, he reminds us of a basic precept that must undergird all our talks about ethics and justice if it is to be properly Christian (bold words…

Here’s the sermon I gave last night at Journey. It’s the last thing I’ll say about what happened at WorldVision last week. And, as with all sermons, it’s better heard than read, so I put the sarcastic bits in italics.     Today’s story from John 9—and it’s a long…

If you haven’t heard, Christianity Today ran a piece about a change in WorldVision’s hiring policy. The charity organization has simply removed a clause that requires abstinence for anyone other than straight married couples to include any legally married couple, gay or straight. They still require unmarried persons to be…

Happy Moltmann Monday! And, in honor of St. Patrick, who, it is said, used the shamrock to explain the Trinity to the Irish, I thought I’d quote from The Trinity and the Kingdom today. Of course, I don’t know what good old St. Patty had to say about the trinity…

Well, it’s Lent, which means some of us are thinking about death. So this week’s Moltmann Monday quote is from The Coming of God, where Moltmann is talking about eternal life and personal eschatology. Since this is where I think much of American Christianity has a tendency to go off…

Happy Moltmann Monday, all! Since we’ve been talking about church, I thought I’d share from The Church in the Power of the Spirit today. It’s from one of the last chapters entitled “The Marks of the Church” where Moltmann discusses what he believes the “one, holy, catholic church” (Apostles Creed)…

It just so happens that two of my friends have just written books about church, and I think you should know about them (both the people and the books they wrote!) I have not yet read either of them, but I guarantee you they will both add a lot of…

Alright, I’ve already tossed out my thoughts on what church is for, so now I’ll take a stab at defining what church is: Church is the gathered community of God who, through the Spirit, practice the way of Jesus. That’s who we are, and that’s what we do. We are…

As a follow up to the previous post, which was itself a response to all the hoopla around Donald Miller being honest about how he doesn’t attend weekly worship, here’s the question: what’s the point of going to church? What do you do it for? Why does it exist? I…

Guys, I’ve been working on writing my current book project, which means I’ve been reading blogs and checking Facebook more than I ever do. Why? Because writing=2 hours of putzing around/2 hours of actually writing. Obviously. Therefore, wonder of wonders, I am actually INFORMED on a blog conversation regarding Christianity,…

Hello all! This morning I thought I’d grab a different book off my shelf: The Politics of Discipleship and Discipleship in Politics. It’s a series of lectures given by Moltmann in conversation with Mennonite scholars, and includes response/critique essays in the back. It’s a good read. I’m going to pick up…

Surely you’ve heard that Beyonce released a surprise album on iTunes this past Friday at midnight. She shared the news to her 8 million Instagram followers and it’s already the fastest selling record in iTunes history. Fans were delighted; others, not so much. Target, for instance, has decided not to…

Happy Moltmann Monday! Today’s excerpt is from The Way of Jesus Christ in a long section entitled “Spirit Christology.” As such, I pulled some introductory sentences and then skipped around to the remarks which would most easily and succinctly show you where Moltmann’s going in this section: Jesus’ history as the…

Happy Moltmann Monday from icy Dallas! As there’s been quite a bit of chatter about the poor lately in the news, from the debate over minimum wage rates, a post by Dave Ramsey and Rachel Held Evan’s counter-post, Pope Francis’ recent comments on money (and all the backlash he got from…

Two years ago, a group of people got together to put on a conference about children’s and youth ministry in this emerging church context. We called it Children, Youth and a New Kind of Christianity. We wanted to talk about how to cultivate the kinds of faith environments that wouldn’t…

If you’ll allow me to hop on my soap box for a moment, I’d like to offer you preachers an unsolicited theological plea for sanity this Advent season: Please, for the love of all things good and holy, do not preach about the death of Jesus for the next four…

Hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving weekend! Back we go, and here’s some Moltmann Monday Advent goodness to help ease you back into the week. I should say: personally, I’m a fan of keeping Advent about the incarnation and proclaiming Christ’s return the rest of the year. But I…

My Advent 1 posts are up over at The Hardest Question and, as they are my final installment to this lectionary blog which has been such fun for me to serve as a contributor, I tried to do right by them and go out with a bang. I try to put…

I’m thinking this morning of many of my friends who have gathered in Washington, DC for the first meeting of the Cana Initiative. This collection of great people are seeking to Connect, Advocate, Network and Act (see that? see what they did there?!) in ways that we all hope will…

Happy Moltmann Monday! I’m going to share yet another gem from The Way of Jesus Christ, this one from his section on Jesus as the messianic person: According to the Gospel of Mark, there was originally a particularly close relationship between Jesus and the people…Wherever Jesus goes in Galilee, the…

Dallas people, I hope you’re already aware of The Well, a ministry for people with mental illness based in Oak Cliff. It’s a fantastic group of people that I love, and Journey’s been proud to call them our friends for a good long while now. Well, this December 4th, you…

My posts for this week’s lectionary text are up over at The Hardest Question. There are two really good (read: challenging) passages for this week. One is from Luke 21 in the section which contains this doozy: “When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified.” I talk…

This Moltmann Monday I’m continuing the section I quoted in part last week in The Way of Jesus Christ when Moltmann is discussing whether there is a Christian ethic or not. He says there is, of course, which we can see clearly in the Sermon on the Mount. And the…

I haven’t read Rob Bell’s newest book What We Talk About When We Talk About God  but I just watched his interview with Oprah and he apparently gives three primary statements about God: God is with us, God is for us, and God is ahead of us. I love that!…

Happy Moltmann Monday, all. I’ve got a short few sentences from The Way of Jesus Christ today, and short is all you need. These sentences pack a punch: Does the Sermon on the Mount count as valid? And is it something that has to be practiced? This is going to…

This Moltmann Monday quote is from The Way of Jesus Christ again, from his section on Christology and its relevance: The theme of the acknowledgement ‘Jesus is the Christ, Jesus is the Lord’ is not merely the mystery of Jesus’ person. From the very beginning, and quite essentially, this acknowledgement…

Spread the word! Those who are interested in applying for the pastor position at Journey can find a brief job description here. Resumes can be sent to the email listed at the bottom.

I had a really fun time chatting with Shane Blackshear over at Seminary Dropout and the conversation is now up on his website. Y’all, he asked me about Moltmann and I’m afraid I blabbered ON and ON, for far more minutes than he probably wanted me to use on that…

Happy Moltmann Monday everyone! I’ve been re-reading The Way of Jesus Christ and boy, is it fabulous. I’ve got to admit it was one of my later Moltmann reads. In fact, of all Moltmann’s major books, it was the very last one I read. At the time, this was because I…

I’ll be in St. Louis on October 18th and 19th with the good people of Next Generation Fellowship. You can click here to see the full flyer for time, location and RSVP information.

I’m rereading some Moltmann lately and it’s made me want to share some tidbits of goodness with you all, so Moltmann Monday is back! Let’s kick it off with an excerpt from a fantastic interview given by Third Way Magazine (with thanks to my friend Scott Paeth for the heads…

Mark Scandrette and I have known each other over a decade now, and we’ve led workshops and done conference things together and spent many hours talking about faith and life and family. He’s a wise old soul with loads of modern sensibilities. He will give you advice like the best…

If you’ve been paying attention to anything at all lately, you’ve already heard about Pastrix, written by my friend Nadia Bolz-Weber, which has skyrocketed to the New York Times bestseller list and currently ranks as the top book in addiction recovery, the 5th book in religious memoirs, and the 8th…

My friend Mike Stavlund is a remarkable guy. He leads Common Table, an emerging church in Washington DC that has as its members a good number of people I quite adore. He teaches at Wesley Theological Seminary. He writes at his blog and at Patheos and at The Hardest Question….

…and you should know who they are and what they have been writing. So this week, every day I’m going to write about one of my friend’s books in the hopes that more people who need to read their words will know they are out there and waiting! Here’s the…

Next week I’ll be in Abilene, Texas with the good folks at Hardin Simmons University. I’m honored to be giving this year’s Cornerstone Lectures which will be Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday morning. If you’re in town I’d love to see you there! The lectures are entitled: “What Have We Done…

Friends, I wanted to let you know that some new things are happening in my life these days. After a long period of discernment and spiritual direction, I decided that it was time for me to step down from my role as Pastor at Journey and to step into a…

I’ve got my thoughts for this week’s lectionary readings up over at get us all to thinking. It’s paired with the Old Testament story of Abraham being visited under the oak tree. It provides a pretty interesting contrast. Give both the posts a read and let me know what you…

Alternate Title: How my 8 year old won a theological debate with me in the car about a pop song. Guys, this is what you call a fluff piece. But I just had to share. For the last few weeks, every time Selena Gomez’s new song “Come and Get It”…

Metroplex people, I’m delighted to join the North Dallas Emergent cohort in Plano this coming Thursday, June 27th at 7pm at the Starbucks located at Custer and Parker. We’ll be talking about my book, so feel free to bring your questions and comments!

Dallas people, this Sunday engaging the paradox that God is now here and God is nowhere. So come on out and bring some friends! We begin at 5:10pm Sunday night at 13154 Coit Road, Suite 101.

I’ll be discussing and answering questions about The Boundary Breaking God with the good people at Baptist Women in Ministry on May 6th at 11:30 CST. You can find out all the information below, including the conference call in number. So wherever you are, feel free to join in! WHAT ARE…

  I’ve been making my way through Edwin Friedman’s fabulous book A Failure of Nerve and I cannot recommend it more highly. Actually, if you haven’t ever read anything by Friedman, you should just go online and order all of his books right now, or at least make it a mind-altering…

The Dallas Morning News has assembled a diverse group of religious voices to respond to weekly questions regarding current affairs, religion, and culture. Each Tuesday, some of those responses are highlighted on the Texas Faith blog. I’m honored to be part of that wonderfully diverse group, and look forward to…

After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will…

Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure…

At that time the Lord said to Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise the Israelites a second time.” 3 So Joshua made flint knives, and circumcised the Israelites at Gibeath-haaraloth. When the circumcising of all the nation was done, they remained in their places in the camp until they were…

My dear friend Troy Bronsink has written a lovely book about creativity that strikes a harmony between deep theological reflection and practice, process and application. He describes the arc of God’s creativity as a way of drawing us into our own creative process and encourages us to build a life…

Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen…

In Robert Frost’s poem “Birches,” the speaker describes his love of birch trees, whose branches bend to left and right, and he imagines a boy swinging from them, traversing up and down. He writes, He learned all there was To learn about not launching out too soon And so not…

Yesterday some of my Journey friends mentioned they’re having a difficult time coming up with a Lenten practice, or needed a basic rundown on how this whole Lent thing works, and asked if I could put together a little cheat sheet or conversation starter to help them think through it….

    Recently I was fortunate to speak with Chris Yaw over at the ChurchNext podcast about faith, pastoral leadership, Journey community life, the future of the church…and fairy tales. You can watch (or download and listen to) the full interview here. And while you’re there, be sure to check…

    I wanted to offer some thoughts on last week’s Emergence Christianity event and also give you a chance to hear what others are saying, which you can access in the links below. First, if you’ve never been to an event sponsored by Jopa, you should know that Tony…

I’m at the Emergence Christianity event in Memphis, TN this weekend which is already proving to be a great event. You can follow our Twitter hashtag #EC13 if you want to follow the conversation today. As usual, we’re expecting the lovely Phyllis Tickle to Online Pokies overwhelm us (in a…

      I’m happy to announce that the registration and website for this year’s Baptist Women in Ministry conference is live! You can find all the information you need am honored to be this year’s plenary speaker, and I’ll also be leading a breakout session on Baptists and the…

Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem,   and put on forever the beauty of the glory from God.  Put on the robe of the righteousness that comes from God;    put on your head the diadem of the glory of the Everlasting;  for God will show…

The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and…

    I had a conversation over Thanksgiving break with my teenage niece about college and careers. Though she still has plenty of time to decide on the rest of her life, she’s already being bombarded by well-meaning (we hope) adults who insist she must think about what kind of…

Hey Dallas people, come by our Alternative Gift Market next Sunday December 2nd at 4pm at Journey. We’ll have all kinds of lovely goodies- fair trade coffee and chocolate, handmade items that support amazing people and organizations, lots of opportunities to donate to non-profits we love, and even a way…

On election night, I spent a fair amount of time explaining to my kids why the map looked more red than blue and why that didn’t actually mean more people voted red than blue. We had to talk about the electoral college, and about population density, and also about how…

This weekend I’ll be talking on a number of panels during the National Youth Workers Convention, held in Dallas this year. Specifically, I’ll be sharing thoughts on what eschatology has to do with youth ministry, and how Scripture and theology interact. Also, you won’t want to miss the late night…

It’s just me again, batting away at my “the universe is expanding and isn’t the world amazing and don’t you think we should think of God in terms big enough to match it?” drum again. From the Daily Galaxy: Astronomers estimate that their are billions and billions of galaxies in…

      I have such fond memories of All Saints Day as a child. At my school we dressed up as different saints for a special parade into the chapel. We’d wait eagerly to get the slip of paper telling us which saint we would be. Of course, I…

I heard an interesting piece on NPR earlier this week with Tina Brown, the Editor of Newsweek Magazine, who has recently announced that they will shut down their print edition and go fully digital by January. I admire Tina Brown’s risk-taking, her leadership and her bold vision. I think her…

If you live in the Dallas area, you should know that two great people are coming through town and you should come by to see them. First, all that Troy has to share! He will have books and CDs on hand, so bring some cash if you’d like to purchase…

I read a lot of articles written by people trying to explain emerging Christianity, or the SBNRs (spiritual but not religious). I usually have a few bones to pick with these pieces, and that’s no exception with this article by Steve McSwain, but I have to say he does a…

Alright, Tony, I’ll go one more round. (If you haven’t already, read Tony’s previous blog posts and my previous response.) Last night he tweeted me a link to his most recent post about an adult who got caught plagiarizing and said he never learned about it because he was homeschooled….

My posts are up for this week’s lectionary texts over at them and join the conversation. Also, check out their new web layout! Looks great!    

My grandmother, my dad’s mom, passed away this past week, and I was honored to give the homily at her memorial service this weekend. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. He…

Just wanted to let you know that I’m going to be taking a break from Moltmann Mondays for a while. No, I don’t love him any less, and no, I have not run out of passages from which to quote. I’m a fan of changing routines often. I’ll bring it…

A week ago my friend Tony Jones posted an article on his blog explosively titled, “Death to Homeschooling!” As you can imagine, homeschoolers started loading up the comment section with their rebuttals. He’s posted a few follow up pieces since then, which have also garnered way too many comments I…

Happy Moltmann Monday! Vacation’s over and I’m back to share some thoughts about Sabbath, from God in Creation. But before that, if you haven’t yet heard, Moltmann’s NEW (and possibly last…though we cannot speak too much about this lest I burst into tears and/or flames at the thought) book is…

Happy Moltmann Monday! Vacation’s over and I’m back to share some thoughts about Sabbath, from God in Creation. But before that, if you haven’t yet heard, Moltmann’s NEW (and possibly last…though we cannot speak too much about this lest I burst into tears and/or flames at the thought) book is…

A couple of years ago I wrote about how I had a bit of a parental freak-out moment when my daughter turned 9 and I realized she was halfway to moving out and going to college. So like any lunatic person, I began giving her regular advice sermons at every…

Earlier this year, I became frustrated while trying to find good books for my daughter to read. So many of them were centered around boys, or popularity, or glitter, and don’t get me started about the writing style inside. And it seemed as if she had already read many of…

  I’m thrilled to be part of this event at Mo Ranch Conference Center this coming October, along with Phyllis Tickle, Doug Pagitt, Bruce Reyes-Chow, Troy Bronsink and Neal Locke.  Here’s the flyer and here is a link for registration. As you probably know, it’s always a good idea to…

Hello all, I apologize for being so absent from the blog-world recently. School was wrapping up with its array of end-of-year festivities, and now it’s summer, which means a good chunk of my time is spent with my children and not in front of the computer. Also, we’re in the…

Today’s Moltmann Monday comes to us courtesy of Theology Ryan Gosling:   I do, too, Ryan. I do too.

Dallasites, my friend David Martin and I are hosting a one-day conference this coming Saturday called CARE. David is a Hospice Chaplain with years of experience and he has done extensive continuing education on grief. I’m excited about this opportunity for people across the metroplex to come and hear him…

    On Maundy Thursday of Holy Week, we remember the Last Supper Jesus shared with his disciples and friends, breaking bread and sharing wine. And in John’s gospel, we also encounter Jesus as servant, kneeling before a wash basin and washing the feet of his students. John 13:12-15 says:…

This Moltmann Monday, here are some wise words from our German friend about Jesus’ suffering and death. They come from p.178 from The Way of Jesus Christ: The theology of surrender is misunderstood and perverted into the very opposite unless it is grasped as being the theology of the pain…

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a Moltmann Monday, and today will be a little different. I wrote a follow-up piece to Erik Leafblad’s article “God Loses” in this month’s Immerse Journal. You can read it here.  In it I talk about my first experience with Moltmann’s The Crucified…

  My thoughts on the lectionary texts for the first Sunday in Lent are up at The Hardest Question. Go give it a read and share your thoughts in the comments!

Here’s something crazy for your Friday afternoon. My hubbie told me about this article and I seriously thought he was kidding at first. But apparently, it’s true. From NPR: Michigan State University surveyed more than 700 employers seeking to hire recent college graduates. Nearly one-third said parents had submitted resumes on their…

Look, I know this is not about theology, or Moltmann, or the church, or even parenting. So feel free to abstain from reading my rant-y post. On Friday, I read The Hunger Games on the flight home. On Saturday, I bought the next two books in the series and finished…

This past week, I traveled to Ontario, CA for the Emergent Village Theological Conversation at Claremont. Over three days we heard from Monica A. Coleman, John Cobb and Philip Clayton as they talked about process, practice and a dash of metaphysics. I came into the conversation without any prior familiarity…

(This post is part of a Patheos Book Club roundtable review.) Simplicity and frugality become all the rage in a recession. In the last year, the cultural landscape has exploded with magazine articles and blog posts boasting how-to articles on making (and keeping) a budget, the secret to grocery coupon…

  Attention those of you who live in the Dallas area: this Sunday, Mark Scandrette will be leading our Journey gathering!  And YES, I KNOW this is Super Bowl Sunday, but guess what: 1) This is what DVRs are for and 2) the game lasts so long that you can…

In today’s excerpt from The Way of Jesus Christ we hop into a discussion Moltmann is having about creation, and specifically Genesis 1:2 (“The Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters”): The Hebrew word rahaph is generally translated ‘hover’ or ‘brood’. But according to Deut. 32:11 and Jer….

I’m so excited that the new there every other week. My first post went up today, so go give it a read!  And go add it to your RSS feed. There are already a ton of really great posts up.

Happy third week of Advent! This morning’s Moltmann Monday quote comes from Sun of Righteousness, Arise!. This is a great book for people new to Moltmann, and it’s written in a more conversational style than some of his other more theological works. The quote below comes at the beginning of…

In case you missed it, the you know, space is limited for this event each year, so don’t delay in getting registered! Find out all the information and a link to registration here.

We’re immersed in Advent as we enter the mid-point of the season and the light of our hope slowly grows brighter. Some words from Moltmann this morning from Theology of Hope p.164-165: God is not somewhere in the Beyond, but he is coming and as the coming One he is…

The new December issues of Christianity Today is out, and this month’s question in the “Under Discussion” column is “Should churches copyright their name?” I give my two cents in a few brief sentences. Go grab one and see what you think!

Hope all of you had a good Thanksgiving! Moltmann Monday is back with an excerpt from a Theology Today article on children, childhood and hope. Here’s a snippet: The child, whose birth and whose future reign of peace devoid of violence and war Isaiah announced (chapters 9,11), is the “Son…

In honor of Patheos’ ongoing conversation of posts on the future of seminary education, today’s Moltmann Monday excerpt comes from God for a Secular Society in his chapter “Theology in the Modern University.” He’s been describing how theological faculties began as central and primary to the university when there was a religion…

Happy Moltmann Monday, y’all!  Today’s excerpt comes from The Spirit of Life in his chapter on the theology of mystical experience. I’m giving you the first few sentences for context, but pay attention to the last half particularly. The Greek philosophers, the [parents] of the Church, and the monastic Fathers…

Hot off the presses, here’s the info!  I will be there- not only for the good conversation and time with friends but also for the warm California sunshine! I hope to see you there! Nancey Murphy, Dallas Willard, Jurgen Moltmann, Miroslav Volf, Walter Brueggemann, John Caputo, Stanley Hauerwas. In the…

Happy Halloween, all! Today’s Moltmann quote comes from The Church in the Power of the Spirit in a section about the form of the church as fellowship on page 317:   The church will not overcome its present crisis through reform of the administration of the sacraments, or from the reform…

  If you haven’t heard, there’s a great event coming up this spring. I’ll be there, and I’m excited to be able to learn and share ideas as a pastor and mom who cares deeply about the way we are raising our children in faith. Here’s some info, from their website:…

Good news awaits us this morning from the pastor of Mars Hill Sacramento. Over the weekend they spoke with pastors of Mars Hill Seattle and are in the process of working things out. You can read all the details on Pastor Scott Hagan’s blog.  The short recap is this:  MH…

This morning Twitter was all a-flutter with news that Mars Hill Seattle has sent out Cease and Desist letters to other churches with the same name. For years, I have watched church copyrighting become a trend.  Most closely, this has happened at the megachurch that resides just on the other…

I have been known to describe emerging church things as “Gestalt-y” which, I know, is a word I’ve entirely fabricated.  And though I am partial to that word and idea even still, I do think Moltmann does a much better job of describing what I am trying to communicate when…

This week over at Patheos I wrote down five things I hear myself saying most often when people ask how to create participatory communities of faith.  Head over there and leave me a comment!

A late-evening Moltmann Monday posts for those of you who remind me when I skip a week… :)  This one’s from God in Creation p.287: Israel has given the nations two archetypal images of liberation: the exodus and the sabbath. The exodus from slavery into the land of liberty is…

Happy Moltmann Monday!  Today I’m sending you a little section from Jesus Christ for Today’s World which is one of Moltmann’s “broader audience” books (read: not academic theology).  In this chapter he picks up an earlier strand of conversation he’s had with us about the  false dichotomy of anxiety and…

I had lunch with a seminary friend yesterday, and at some point in the two hour conversation we got to talking about the general misunderstanding that the Gospel is fair.  What I mean is that people assume and expect that our hard work will pay off in apparent results, and…

Thanks to Tony’s new book, I’m in a The Church in the Power of the Spirit mood today.  Here’s an excerpt from Moltmann’s section on Jesus and friendship, which Tony rightly highlighted in his book as one of Moltmann’s more unique takes on Christology:   The titles through which the…

Recently I’ve been reading McIntyre (and if you haven’t, read After Virtue as it should be on a very short list of must reads) and discussing it at Geek Squad each week.  (As an aside, Geek Squad is exactly what it sounds like–a group of self-admitted geeks sitting around talking…

If you’re in the metroplex, block off the weekend of September 30th for two great conferences! First, come to Frontier Church on Friday, September 30th from 9am to 2pm and spend the day with Nadia Bolz-Weber, Mike Baughman, and a host of others  as we talk about reaching young adults…

Moltmann Monday is back after a few week hiatus, so why don’t we kick it off with a bang as Moltmann decides to take Aristotle to task. From God for a Secular Society, p. 135ff: Ever since Aristotle, the principle of knowledge has been: ‘like is only known by like.’…

This October, one of Emergent Village’s longest running traditions will once again take place:  The Gathering in Glorieta, New Mexico.  Fifteen-ish years ago, when the church world was all aglow with big tent conferences with glitzy leading names and packed out conference centers (which I enjoy, by the way), a…

I was talking to a friend a few weeks back about my hometown, which is a rugged little West Texas town with lots of oil fields and cattle ranchers. One of the great things about West Texans is their utter lack of pretension. Two generations ago, the wealthiest guy in…

Last night at Journey we talked about spiritual maturity and harmony, where we begin to see God’s presence all around us and begin to realize in a deep way how we are all connected.  In that place, our love for God becomes both more personal and less about us. That…

“Liminal space is the ultimate teachable space.” – Father Richard Rohr Dallas and Fort Worth people, if you haven’t already heard, mark your calendars for a great local event!  Liminal Christianity: The Sacred Place in Between will be on August 13th from 9-4:30, hosted at Broadway Baptist Church in Fort…

Happy Moltmann Monday!  Below is a snippet from Experiences in Theology p.337: We ascribe wonder as the root of knowledge to the child, and to the primal child in every grown-up.  What we expect of the old, in contrast, is wisdom. The old are supposed to have become wise through…

Hello all!  After a nice little vacation from the screen, here’s a short but sweet punch-to-the-stomach reminder from our dear German friend this Monday morning.  It came from a lecture he gave at Garrett Theological Seminary, to which you can listen in its entirety here:   Christian hope does not…

A word on praise and prayer from Moltmann’s The Source of Life: The world is full of praise, for God is in this world. God is not far off, in the Beyond, but is himself the life in the world. Israel expresses this by saying that God’s Spirit, God’s Wisdom…

Happy Moltmann Monday!  Happy Pentecost!  (Could there be a better duet?!)  In honor of my favorite Christian holiday, today’s excerpt comes from The Spirit of Life p. 278ff: The early Christian experience of Pentecost is presented with metaphors about the rushing of a great wind, and a flaming fire…I am…

I’m on a quantum physics kick these days, so here’s an apt Moltmann Monday quote about creation, particles, and the fundamental unity of nature from The Way of Jesus Christ (p. 288): If all things are created by God, then a transcendent unity precedes their diversity and their historicity. It…

  My at Patheos.  In it I talk about cardio, exit strategies, and Twinkies.  Go check it out if you’re interested.

My latest lectionary blog posts are up at answered yet, and wonder whether Ascension is the Great Day of Honesty for Christians.  Come join the conversation!

Oh, dear.  What a week we had.  Between the CDC posting an article about preparing for the zombie apocalypse to the dire (and false) predictions of Harold Camper, it seems everyone became fixated on discussions about the end of the world.  But have no fear.  It’s Moltmann Monday, and I…

Happy Moltmann Monday!  This morning’s Moltmann quote comes from The Spirit of Life. In this section, he is attempting to provide a non-dualistic understanding of Paul’s discussion of the battle between the spirit and the flesh. Life in the flesh is false life, life that has missed its way, life…

So Journey is doing a series on zombies, and I wanted to expand some ideas I mentioned on last Sunday’s first conversation. (If you’re completely baffled about why in the world we’re talking about zombies, read my post about it at Patheos.) It’s quite surprising how many philosophical books, articles…

Happy Monday, all.  Today’s Moltmann minute comes from Sun of Righteousness, Arise! p.67: The Catholic liturgy for Easter Eve enjoins the reading of the first creation narrative, Genesis 1. That is a wonderful sign:  the world begins with a ‘resurrection.’ It is called out of the darkness of chaos into…

Hi all- A few days late, here are some weekly thoughts from our German friend.  Today’s excerpt comes from Jesus Christ for Today’s World. When we talk about Christ’s resurrection from the dead we are not talking about a fact. We are talking about a process. We are talking in…

This August, I’ll be speaking at the Alban Institute’s Sacred Practice Leadership Series.  It’s a fantastic program geared towards cultivating deep spiritual leadership among pastors and lay leaders.  Here’s more: Leadership in the church is changing. In the past, leadership often meant knowing and following good business practices, reading the desires of…

Happy Easter, everyone!  Ah, how I missed my German friend!  And what better way to celebrate than to share some of his words on the resurrection from The Way of Jesus Christ:   Seeing history in the perspective of resurrection means participating through the Spirit in the process of resurrection….

I have a brief article on prayer out in this month’s Immerse Journal.  Immerse is a magazine dedicated to issues of relevance to people who work with and for youth.  The magazine has fantastic content, and it’s really lovely to hold and to look at, too.  (Yes, I’m still one…

Over the last month or so, my 6 year old has come up with a new little rhythm in his prayers. All of them- before meals, before bed, when we see an accident on the highway.  He says, “Dear God, I hope…”  Last night it was, “Dear God, I hope…

Many people during Lent attempt to spend more time in silence, prayer, meditation.  We all know it’s not easy.  We all know the cliches about how loud our lives are, and how noisy our heads have become.  I’m not a contemplative type of person at all, so when I try…

This past November, I was sitting in a room with seventy other people at the Emergent Village Theological Conversation in Atlanta listening to Musa Dube, a New Testament scholar from Botswana. She was talking about Western scholarship, and all the unspoken rules we have about what is good and what…

In preparation for our entry into the season of Lent, here are a few words from Moltmann’s The Way of Jesus Christ in an introductory section of the chapter,  “The apocalyptic sufferings of Christ”: At the center of Christian faith is the history of Christ. At the center of the…

at Patheos.  You can read it Patheos button on the right to get to my column anytime!

This Monday morning’s Moltmann outtake comes from The Church in the Power of the Spirit, in the chapter of that same name: It is necessary to reflect theologically on the mission of the community and every individual Christian, and on the congregation’s order and special ministry for before anyone actually…

Happy Feast of Saint Valentine to you all!  A few apropos words on love by my valentine, Jurgie: Love is the self-communication of the good.  It is the power of good to go out of itself, to enter into other being, to participate in other being, and to give itself…

Yes, I’m talking about Mad Men again.  And it’s not even on the air right now.  But my friend Jason Mitchell tweeted an article by the New York Review of Books and I felt the need to respond.  Because the author seemed to miss one of the most brilliant parts…

I realize I’m prone to these kinds of statements about Moltmann, but honestly, the paragraph below is absolutely mind blowingly fantastic. It’s so good, I’m not going to say any further commentary about the content itself, other than encourage you to read it, and think about the vast amount of…

This Monday morning’s Moltmann minute, from the opening chapter of Jesus Christ for Today’s World: Anyone who gets involved with Jesus gets involved with the Kingdom of God. This is an inescapable fact, for Jesus’ own concern was, and is, God’s kingdom. Anyone who looks for God and asks about…

Happy Moltmann Monday!  Some thoughts on freedom, love, and community for you: The truth of freedom is love. It is only in love that human freedom arrives at its truth. I am free and feel myself to be truly free when I am respected and recognized by others and when…

Fitting words of wisdom from Moltmann after this weekend’s tragedy in Tucson: Today the peoples of the earth are entering a shared global history, because they are all mortally endangered, on the one hand by the nuclear threat they pose to one another, and on the other by the ecological…

Happy twelfth day of Christmas to all of you!  Take notes on the appropriate festive mood from my camel friend here.

Hey friends, I recently started writing a column over at annual New Years stations.  You can read it here. *Also, a few people have said they can’t find the column when they go to the Patheos homepage.   Scroll over “Resources” on the top bar and then click on “Preachers…

Happy New Year, everyone!  I hope you enjoyed your Christmas break as much as I did.   It’s our first Moltmann Monday of 2011, and today’s excerpt comes from his book Jesus Christ for Today’s World.  I found it fitting as we celebrate these last few days of Christmastide and…

Sometime this summer, I was walking around with laundry in my hands, and out of who-knows-where, I was pummeled with a very disconcerting thought:  this December, my daughter will be turning nine.  NINE.  As in, halfway to EIGHTEEN.  As in, by December my parenting-my-daughter-under-my-roof season will be HALFWAY over.  I…

From a Moltmann sermon on Isaiah 9: All the images the prophet uses to paint the possible future point to one fact: the birth of the divine child. The burning of the weapons, the jubilation and the great light are all caught up in the birth of God’s peace-bringer. They…

Over the years I’ve had mixed feelings about Facebook.  A number of times I have debated closing my account and giving it up altogether.  So I’m aware of all the critiques, and I agree with most of them.  But here’s the thing.  Sometimes, Facebook can be an even better connector…

Happy Advent, everyone!  And what better to kick off this first Monday of Advent than a little Moltmann messianic theology? The messiah will come when it is possible because the way has been prepared for him.  This is the advice of the prophets (Isaiah 40).  Prepare the way for the…

Happy Thanksgiving all!  I’ll not be blogging this week as I’m going to enjoy some good family time.  (And, in deference to my vegetarian daughter who will be fervently praying for turkeys between now and Thursday, I’ve posted a picture only of fruit. :) You’re welcome, kiddo.)  Below is a…

Be warned- I’m about to cite an article that will likely rile up a number of people.  It came from a blog post about universalism (we’ll save that topic for another day) that you can find in its entirety here.  However, it is the following excerpt that I found worth…

Another quote from Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendell, this from the concluding pages of I am My Body:  A Theology of Embodiment. “Reflection on embodiment as a central Christian topic prompts mistrust of a Western Augustinian theology which begins with the fall instead of creation and the pleasure which God took in this…

I recently finished a series of essays by high-profile (mostly German) theologians entitled How I Have Changed.  The idea came from Jurgen and Elisabeth Moltmann, who wanted to hold a symposium of their theological generation and share the overarching themes of their work over the past thirty years and how…

I feel entirely creepy coming back from a post-colonial theological conversation and quoting yet another German white guy, so this morning you have the pleasure of hearing from Moltmann’s resident theological sparring partner, his wife Elisabeth.  This excerpt comes from her book, I Am My Body as part of her…

In honor of last week’s synchroblog on loving our enemies, here’s a prayer Moltmann wrote for a sermon on this difficult teaching of Jesus: “Heavenly Father, we call upon you in Jesus’ name.  We come with empty hands.  We have not been able to love our enemies.  As a rule…

My friend Doug Pagitt is known for a number of things.  He is the pastor of Solomons Porch in Minneapolis.  He has written a number of books, all of which I’d highly recommend to you.  He hosts his own radio show (“Religious radio that’s not quite right”) on Sundays that you can stream anytime….

A year ago today, The Boundary Breaking God: An Unfolding Story of Hope and Promise hit the shelves.   I’ve enjoyed traveling around and talking about the ideas I share in the book, and I’ve appreciated all the emails and conversations I’ve exchanged with readers and small group members.  (If you’re…

Happy Moltmann Monday!  In honor of my friend who is reading The Way of Jesus Christ today, here’s an excerpt from that work: “The gospel is the light which salvation throws ahead of itself.  It is nothing less than the arrival of the coming God in the word.  We have…

*For the  people who have not yet hopped on the Mad Men train but are contemplating it and to those who are behind on episodes:  Do not worry.  There is not a semblance of a spoiler anywhere in this post.  I promise. As you may know, I’m rather obsessed with…

This Monday morning, an excerpt of classic Moltmann theology for you: “If one hopes for the sake of Christ in the future of God and the ultimate liberation of the world, he cannot passively wait for this future, and, like the apocalyptic believers, withdraw from the world.  Rather he must…

One of the traits I love most about Moltmann’s work is that he has the unbelievable knack of turning a question on its head.  I tend to call these moments “WWF smackdown” moments, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere.  In reframing a question, Moltmann puts on his superhero cape and rescues us…

I am in a The Church in the Power of the Spirit mood today, so here’s your Moltmann Monday excerpt, italics mine: “In peaceful times the church could affirm itself by demonstrating the unbroken and unaltered continuance of its tradition and traditions.  People appealed to these things, trusting in the…

This week, EV is hosting a synchroblog on our upcoming Theological Conversation.  There have been some great posts that have come out of our theme of “Creating Liberated Spaces in a Postcolonial World,” so be sure to check the bottom of the post for links.  Rather than discuss the idea…

Well hello there, fellow blogosphere friends!  I hope you had a lovely and relaxing summer.  I took a wonderful break from the virtual world and have spent the last week getting slowly back into the swing of things.  As today is Monday, what better way to kick off my blog…

Just in time for Moltmann Monday, Emergent Village has just released the first podcast episode from last September’s EV Theological Conversation.  Head on over to iTunes and subscribe to the EV Podcast- it’s free!  In this first episode, Tony Jones and I talk with Professor Moltmann about his life story…

Pentecost is probably my favorite day of the year.  My Journey peeps joke that I say that when every single Christian holiday comes around, but seriously, Pentecost is my favorite.  I will not waste an hour of your time rambling as to why.  As it’s Monday, I thought I’d pass…

On Sunday I was in Kansas City spending the day with the great people at Jacobs Well.  They had invited me to preach that day, unaware that the date  fell on Ascension, which has been something of an obsession of mine this past year.  Consequently, they got more than their…

It’s Monday and you know what that means- Moltmann Mondays! In the first chapter of Moltmann’s latest book, he outlines 3 paradigms of leadership the church can follow.  The first is the hierarchical paradigm, in which there is one God, one Pope/Bishop, one Church.  He writes, “In the political world,…

If you haven’t heard, my favorite theologian (understatement of the year) has recently had a book published in English entitled Sun of Righteousness, Arise!  God’s Future for Humanity and the Earth.  This is one of his more pastoral works, which means it’s written not for theologians but for all of…

Earlier this year I was able to connect with the great people over at Englewood Review of Books when they did a review of The Boundary-Breaking God.  In concert with Englewood Christian Church, every spring they put on a conference to engage in an issue practically relevant to Christian life, and this…

Last Thursday I had the opportunity to tour the town of Immokalee, Florida, where the overwhelming majority of our tomatoes in America are grown.  The farmworkers in Immokalee work unbelievably long days under grueling heat.   They usually wake up at 4:30 or 5:00am, head to a pick-up site where they…

Today I’m participating in a Synchroblog to discuss what is emerging in the Church.  You can find other great posts from a diverse group of voices by checking out the linked FB page. “Life seeks systems so that more may flourish.  Life is in the business of creating more life. …

I have spent some time reflecting on the recent Sojourners article about the emerging church conversation being a primarily white (and male) conversation.  I have heard this critique many times in the past, and I highly doubt this last attempt at jabbing the emerging church for its perceived hip white…

Dallas people, This year Journey has partnered with Church in the Cliff for Good Friday.  Read below for details- we would love to have you join us! DART Stations of the Cross is a community art project which links an ancient spiritual practice with mass transit. It is presented on…

April 23-24th I’ll be in sunny St. Petersburg, Florida along with Shane Claiborne, Spencer Burke, and a host of other fantastic people for A Sustainable Faith conference.  The question we’ll be gathering around there is “How can we be sustainably committed to justice over the long haul and not become overwhelmed…

A Catholic friend of mine and I were discussing the act of excommunication recently.  He believes that the Church ought to exercise its right to excommunicate people more often, not for punishment’s sake alone, but as a necessary act to call for repentance and reconciliation.  He believes the Church should…

Emergent Village recently posted an interview of Brian McLaren regarding his latest book by fellow Emergent Village Council member Melvin Bray.  Before Melvin begins the interview, he openly admits to a friendship between the two.  He reminds readers that this doesn’t keep him from asking Brian hard questions because for those…

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This April I’ll be speaking at the Sustainable Faith conference in Florida.  I’ll be joined by Shane Claiborne, Spencer Burke and Cheri Honkala.  The primary question around which we’ll be gathering is, “How can we be sustainably committed to justice over the long haul and not become overwhelmed by the…

I’m diving into a number of places where the term “mimetic” and “mimesis” keep coming up.  I will have to talk about that more later, but for the time being, you must read this article.  It is about mirror neurons, which apparently are highly adaptable cells that allow your brain…

I watched a Lenten documentary tonight.  It wasn’t about Lent, technically, but it was one of the most powerful descriptions of our human condition that I have seen in quite some time.  The documentary was called Pray the Devil Back to Hell and tells the story of the courageous and…

It seems popular these days for people to virtually ponder and verbally process where we all are in the conversation/movement/revolution/whatever-name-will-not-offend-you-and-create-another-retaliatory-blogpost called emergent/emerging/emersion/emergence.  And though I’ve certainly not read all such posts, I have read enough of them to notice a trend in the language to describe this shift.  (Disclaimer:  I…

If people like Pete Rollins, Chris Haw, Karen Sloan and a bunch of neo-monastics are your kind of people, you need to go to the Peace by Piece conference in two weeks.  It’s incredibly affordable, and you can find cheap fares on Southwest if you’re anywhere nearby.  I’m really looking…

We’ve been discussing the Didache at Journey, and last night we had an interesting conversation about the verse “Abstain from fleshly and bodily lusts” (1:4).  I know-  you think you can guess what follows this.  But you’d be wrong.  Here’s what the Didache says immediately following that verse:  “If someone strikes your…

Every once in a while, when I’m doing something I do regularly, I’ll have this moment where I realize how strange and odd it is that I am doing it.  This morning it happened in yoga class.  I go there every week.  I’ve practiced yoga for years.  But today, for…

This weekend my husband and I went to go see the movie Avatar.  Neither of us had high expectations, other than that it was to be a virtual feast (literally) of cinematic tricks.  On that expectation it delivered far beyond what I could have imagined; the world of Pandora was…

This weekend my husband and I went to go see the movie Avatar.  Neither of us had high expectations, other than that it was to be a virtual feast (literally) of cinematic tricks.  On that expectation it delivered far beyond what I could have imagined; the world of Pandora was…

Three cheers for Epiphany!  Today is the day we remember the story of the wise men/magi/camel-riding, gift-bearing mystery men from the East who traveled halfway across the known world to visit the Christ Child.  I love the day so much I devoted an entire chapter to it in my book….

Despite the Christmas vacation away from my computer screen, I’ve followed a bit of the blog banter around Andrew Jones’ (aka Tall Skinny Kiwi) blog post declaring the end-date of the Emerging Church Movement.  What I say below is in no means a way to throw criticism back in Andrew’s…

Thanks to everyone who has emailed me and left comments to nominate people for the Advent book giveaway!  After careful consideration, drumroll please…the winner is… Tia Lynn! One of the reasons I wrote this book was to give people a hopeful and life-giving perspective on what it means to follow…

There is nothing that makes me more weepy than a children’s Christmas program…and that’s saying a lot, because I’m not that person who cries at movies or heartstring-pulling commercials, or at much of anything, really.  But give me two minutes in a chapel filled with children singing Christmas songs and…

Happy Advent, everyone!  As it’s Advent, I’m in a particularly festive mood, and I’d like to celebrate by giving away a free copy of my book.  But of course, it wouldn’t be fun just to give it away without any fanfare.  It’s Advent, after all- the season of angels blurting…

Every year from Thanksgiving to Epiphany, my husband listens to nothing but Christmas music.  I will get into my car and find the presets to a Christmas music station.  The minute he steps in the door after work, he turns it on- this year using some app through his iPhone…

So it’s officially December now, which means many of us are already feeling stressed by the very long list of things we need to do over the next 24 days as we get ready to host family at our homes, cook Christmas dinner, exchange presents, and attend approximately eight zillion…

On a more positive note, here’s another thing I was struck by in this article on Islamism.  Sometimes, the action that began to move them away from extremism was surprising, and often subtle.  And it reminds all of us that sometimes our kindness can in fact change a person’s life…even someone…

I’m continuing my observations from the article on Islamism I posted yesterday by saying a brief word about identity. I say brief because honestly, this issue is so critical that you could read a shelf full of books on the matter. As usual in the blogosphere, I’ll reach for the…

This is the best article on Islamism I have read in recent years. As a warning, it is incredibly long. As an encouragement, it is worth every bit of the time it takes to read it. It is the story of three ex-Islamist jihadists and one radically loyal Islamist, all…

Doug Pagitt will be hosting me on his radio show this Sunday at 10:15am to talk with me about my book. You can listen here as well as listen to archived shows. Hope you’ll tune in!

Thanks to everyone who came out for my book release party, and a huge thanks to everyone who helped plan it/host it/photograph it/make it a fantastically fun evening!

The Dallas Justice Revival is starting tonight and I hope to see many of you there! This has been in the works for a number of months now and it’s exciting that the time has finally arrived. What I’m most excited about is the opportunity for people in churches across…

In the first chapter of my book, I compare the story of God in Scripture to the unfolding story of our expanding universe. I ran across a fantastic little editorial piece last week and wanted to share it in its entirety below (original link here). What an amazing universe this…

I have a confession to make. I’m a little obsessed with the AMC show “Mad Men.” The writing is impeccable and the way Matthew Weiner can weave a story through just five words of dialogue or a simple glance is remarkable. I’ll admit I have plenty of issues with the…

Trade As One released their newest video this week, and the first minute does a fantastic job of summarizing what we talked about at Journey on Sunday. Despite all that we have, we can often forget to be grateful. Even worse, we often lose any sense of knowing when enough…

Last night at Journey we began a conversation around the dynamics between our fears of not having enough and a biblical story that tells us to trust there is enough. As with most things, this dynamic is fraught with complexity. For example, in some areas, life really is a zero-sum…

Mark your calendars! My amazing Journey friends are throwing a book release party for The Boundary-Breaking God! When: Monday, November 9 from 7-9pm Where: The Public Trust art gallery in Deep Ellum (big thanks to community members Brian Gibb and Misty Keasler!) What: Mingling, book reading, Q&A, book signing and…

I recently received a copy of Russell Rathbun’s new book nuChristian, a response to 2007’s unChristian. I really appreciated his thoughts on hypocrisy. Of course, any poll will tell you that the general public finds Christians to be hypocritical. Rathbun helpfully describes hypocrisy in a broader way than the narrow…

Last night at Journey we looked at the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand and I talked about the contrast between the bread of heaven (read: not heaven as in far away, “no consequence as long as I get there” heaven but heaven as the realm of God’s household,…

This Sunday is Bread for the World Sunday, a day when communities of faith across the nation come together to pray for those who are hungry among us, to confess that we have not done enough to feed them, and to renew our commitment to action. If you’re a pastor…

I know, I know, it’s cliche to talk about the spiritual dimension to U2’s lyrics. But Monday night’s concert began by Bono yelling to the crowd, “Let’s give the future a kiss!” (a line from “Get on your boots”) and I just couldn’t help but think of the promising horizon…

I’m certain I will not be able to recapture the magic of Christianity 21 here, so instead I offer you a few snapshot moments/cursory observations that were lovely ones for me. – There was something incredibly authentic and open about the overarching tone of the conference. The speakers came from…

…come tonight to the Emergent Cohort. We’ll be discussing my book, eating chips and salsa and generally having a good time. You can find out all the information you need here. Hope to see you tonight! I’ll be posting some reflections on the great time I had at Christianity 21…

for Christianity 21. I’m packing up my sweaters and getting ready for a wonderful few days with a great group of people. I hope to see a lot of you there! If you aren’t able to make it but want to keep up with what’s happening, click on the right…

Here’s the last installment of exclusive sneak peeks for The Boundary Breaking God. This one comes from the final chapter, “A Whole New World,” where I talk about God’s biggest promise of all- new creation. “God’s story talks frequently about the direction where all of this is heading. From the…

A little snippet from Chapter 5 of The Boundary Breaking God for your Monday morning. In this chapter I talk about the expansion of God’s promise at Easter, but I also discuss the central role women played as the “unlikely heralds of the world’s best news.” Enjoy! “The entire story…

This morning I took my crazy red-eyed Boston Terrier, Baxter, to get blessed. Every year around the Feast day of St. Francis, my children’s school has a Blessing of the Animals service. It’s always such beautiful chaos- dogs and fish and hamsters and bunny rabbits and cats and who even…

Taking a quick break today from our Boundary Breaking God sneak peeks because I just love this video and feel like sharing it. Sir Ken Robinson speaks in this TED video about the role of creativity in education, and I think he’s right on. He’s also written a number of…

This morning’s excerpt comes from Chapter Four, which is about Jesus breaking the boundaries of the priesthood. Enjoy! “Priests were meant not to work alone but to serve and encourage others. Somewhere along the way they began serving as gatekeepers, those who stood as buffers between God and the rest…

In chapter three I talk about my obsession with the story of the wise men, otherwise known as the celebration of Epiphany. Here’s your Boundary-Breaking God sneak peek of the day: “Epiphany celebrates the God who unites us from east and west, north and south. I have seen in my…

Exciting news, everyone- my book is officially HERE! (Yes- it came in earlier than expected!) It’s in stock at Amazon now (you can click the link to the right to order) and over the weekend it has been spotted at a number of Barnes and Noble stores. To celebrate, I’ll…

Here’s a question to start your Wednesday morning. A friend and I had a lively discussion the other day about whether or not church should be fun. What do you think?

After my post yesterday, I thought I’d offer up an example of a company that has wholeheartedly embraced the green economy- and they did so as the world’s largest flooring company. Ray Anderson, the CEO of Interface, claims he began to take stock of how his company made their flooring…

I tend to appreciate Thomas Friedman’s take on things. I especially appreciate this recent article about the state of our green economy in the NY Times. Here’s an excerpt from the bottom of the article: “O.K., so you don’t believe global warming is real. I do, but let’s assume it’s…

If you live in Dallas, come out to the Justice Revival Block Party this Saturday from 2-4. There will be free food, free music and the chance to meet a diverse group of people who are coming together to work for justice in our city. You can find all of…

It’s been raining for almost a week solid here in Dallas, and the rain has brought along the dreariest grey skies and the muggiest feeling. My shiny happy spirit after Chicago feels like it’s gotten covered with a soggy, sad little blanket. But then last night at Teaching Team, we…

“We are called not to be a peaceable kingdom but a peacemaking kingdom”- Moltmann (in response to what he thinks of Stanley Hauerwas) For the past few years I’ve been thinking through the relationship between church and nation/state/political powers. It’s a tricky affair. Truthfully, I haven’t figured out how to…

Okay, I believe I’ve just about had enough. Of what, you ask? 1. Kanye West ridiculousness 2. Rep. Joe Wilson ridiculousness 3. Serena Williams ridiculousness 4. The ridiculousness of everybody who made/carried a sign saying “Bury Obamacare with Kennedy.” (See story here.) I do not care what the people listed…

What a fantastic few days! I enjoyed every minute of this year’s Emergent Village Theological Conversation, and a number of blog reflections are rolling in describing why. Though the content was worth every bit of our proper reflection, perhaps the greatest gift he offered us was simply his presence. The…

I’m heading to Chicago tomorrow to spend three days talking shop with the world’s most renown living theologian (and my favorite theologian of any time period, hands down) so it will be all quiet on the blogging front. I’m going to focus all my attention on being present and soaking…

We’ve been back to school for two weeks, and I’m tired! It’s always difficult ramping back into the routine, even when a return to routine is desirable. As I usually do this time of year, I start to wonder about how I can simplify, streamline, de-clutter my life/our lives. It…

It’s been a little serious around here lately, so I thought I’d take the time to declare my undying love for Sweet Leaf teas, specifically their mint and honey green tea. I should tell you that I ADORE tea. I don’t drink coffee or sodas so aside from water, tea…

“Mom?” My daughter called to me from bed. “I need to talk to you about something.” I moseyed up the stairs and sat down beside her. “I’ve been thinking about Star Wars,” she said. (I begin thinking this will be a long conversation, as these often are.) She continued, “I…

Reason #5: He formulates theology in a way that is truly open. I mean at least two things when I say this. First, the style of Moltmann’s writings have an open quality to them. I can only describe it by saying that I can become claustrophobic when reading other theologians…

Reason #4: He gets suffering. And he believes GOD gets suffering. You may be feeling, as some of Moltmann’s critics have, that any theologian who can wax poetic about hope overflowing everywhere and the Spirit redeeming everything and the Trinity happily dancing away is clearly someone who is not in…

This summer Christine Sine has hosted a series of great blogs on everyday spiritual practices. She posted my contribution on the spiritual practice of coloring. Go check it out here, and read the others as well!

Reason #3: He talks about the Trinity in a way that does not make me want to poke my eyes out. If you haven’t noticed yet, I’m a theology nerd. But let me tell you- even I get supremely annoyed when theologians start theorizing about the Trinity…because what they say…

Reason 2: He rescued eschatology from irrelevance. It’s not easy to talk about the end of the world. Jesus followers have been debating and discussing these matters for over two thousand years with a wide variation of answers. To put these diverse views on a scale, we can say there…

The Emergent Theological Conversation with Jurgen Moltmann is drawing near! To get us all in the spirit of this landmark event, this week I’ll be doing a series of posts to tell you the top five reasons I love Moltmann. Reason #1: Moltmann actually cares about the Holy Spirit. If…

(Pre- PostScript: Hermeneutics simply means the method/theory of biblical interpretation.) Hampton sent along a link to the work of artist Lauren DiCioccio in her comment to my Statistics as Art post below. I was so enamored by the picture and concept that I’ve been thinking about it off and on…

As someone for whom numbers sometimes look like cute little characters that need a name before I pay them any attention, I can relate to the very real fact that statistics often hit us as meaningless. Chris Jordan in Seattle has created some amazing works of art to bring these…

Next week I’m going to tell you the top 5 reasons why I love Moltmann. (Believe me, I could list thousands, but I’ll just give you the top five.) For now, though, I’ll point out one example of Moltmannian genius for you that I like to call WWF Smackdown Moments….

Yikes.

Sometimes, when I’m driving around flipping through the radio, I hear a song whose lyrics are so shudderingly BAD and in such poor taste that it completely baffles me. (I don’t have proof, but I have a theory that more of these God-help-them-they-need-to-learn-to-speak-real-English-and-also-learn-some-manners songs come out in the summertime, no?)…

I consider it an act of serendipity that I often find myself listening to NPR’s “The Story” on my way home from weeknight meetings. It’s all I can do not to post each of them, as they usually cause my heart to stir in some way. Last night the program…

At our weekly Moltmann reading group we’ve been having a lot of discussions about judgment- specifically, what does God’s judgment look like and what is it for? This is an understandable talking point for those who are reading “A Theology of Hope” for the first time, because Moltmann’s view of…

…but I will make an exception for this. I heard about Banet Taxi on NPR as they were profiling businesswomen in Lebanon- who, I should say, have been coming up with all kinds of innovative entepreneurial ideas over the past couple of years, in small part because of encouragement from…

My friend Troy sent me this poem today. It’s very fitting, as our Journey Moltmann Group has been having nonstop conversations about the idea of God being all in all, which Moltmann believes is THE promise through which all other promises will be fulfilled. I’ll blog more about this later,…

This October I’ll be joining twenty other voices at a groundbreaking conference in Minneapolis to discuss what Christianity looks like in the 21st century.  If this is the first you’ve heard of C21, you should know that it really won’t be conference life as usual.  Each of the 21 presenters is…

Dear Mrs. Moltmann-Wendel, I am so delighted that SCM Press translated your autobiography into English.  As you know, many of your works are difficult to find (or, if translated, quite pricey to abtain) so I often have the feeling of being a few (German) steps away from a really great…

I am not remotely an expert on healthcare.  Truth be told, I’ve also not followed the news on Obama’s health care plan the last few days because I’m tired of the noise.  However, I feel this should be said: If someone criticizes an aspect of (or the entirety of) the…

Sadly enough, summer is drawing to a close, and my mind is beginning to gear up for the schoolyear.   It’s been a great one so far, and I plan on milking these last few weeks for all they’re worth.  Mostly I’m thankful that this summer, my children experienced something wonderful.   They were bored.  Sure, we had…

My friend Dallas alerted me to this Op-Ed piece in the New York Times written by Nicholas Kristof, where he asks this compelling question:  “If the G-8 leaders are so willing to save one child, why are they collectively so far behind in meeting humanitarian aid pledges to save other children?”…