-
advent 2024
in adventToday is the first Sunday of Advent. In our home, we read the first story of the New Testament in The Book of Belonging. It begins, “We are called Beloved, but we feel forgotten.” I love that the first story in the New Testament enters into the Advent season without being shy about the turmoil…
-
cultural translation of the gospel
In seminary, I was part of a program that was a partnership between The Newbigin House of Studies and Western Theological Seminary that focused on urban church planting. During the course of my studies, there was a work that was central to our program: The Ephesian Moment. It’s an essay/chapter in The Cross-Cultural Process in…
-
two dangers to avoid in cultural translation
For the past several weeks, I’ve been slowly writing a long post about the cultural translation of the gospel for today with reference to Andrew Walls’s Ephesian Moment. It’s gotten long. And as I’m editing, there’s a large portion that pains me to cut because I spent so much time writing it so now it’s…
-
reflections on one year: gratitude
It’s taking a while to go through my story. I’m going at whatever pace I think I can go. I’m glad I left headings so I know what’s next as I read (and these headings also inform me of when I might need to stop). Yet as I bounce back and forth between past and…
-
reflections on one year: imperfect memory
in reflectionsI’m coming up on one year since I parted with my former church of over a decade. I promised myself that I would not revisit my written story (that I wrote at the end of 2023) until one year later. I had written it all down so I could leave it behind and not fight…
-
Summer of Renewal
in reflectionsI recently saw a friend who had been present throughout the chaos of the past year. He wasn’t present for every step of the unfolding, but because he only saw and sees me intermittently, he was able to say that I looked genuinely happier than I’ve had in the past year. That’s a good sign…