I wrote earlier on celebrating sexuality within a Christian worldview. I still think the world yearns for affirmation of our sexuality from God’s point of view, especially since the world never hesitates to offer distortions and lies on the topic.
However, the most intriguing responses to me were the voices of Christian singles. I heard much [...]

Church Marketing Sucks recently posted about a church near Christmas, Florida that it looking to raise $12 million dollars to build a year-round Christmas theme park for terminally ill children.  Complete with reindeers and Santa, the Covenant Community Church hopes Christmas Dreams can be a good outreach tool for families.  Here’s an excerpt from an [...]

Last Sunday my regular Sunday school class was looking kind of slim; it was mothers day and the university graduation had happened the day before, meaning many students had skipped town already. Instead of doing our usual formal study, we sat around a table with coffee and engaged in some non-directed chatter.  We talked as [...]

For my article on the resurgence of traditional church architecture in the May issue of Christianity Today, I interviewed Eric Jacobsen, senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Tacoma, Washington, and author of Sidewalks in the Kingdom: New Urbanism and the Christian Faith (Brazos Press, 2003). He agreed to have our entire e-mail exchange shared [...]

If Lent is the time for doing without, Eastertide is the time to try something new. We’re living in a new kingdom. A spirit of new life and restless growth is upon us. I’m going to propose an experiment as you approach Pentecost. Try some new spiritual gifts. We find out what we’re gifted at [...]

The Pew Forum recently published a survey on why people change religions from the tradition in which they were raised as a child. They have a handy interactive graph that shows why people switch to and from and in between traditions.
But I’m particularly interested in why people who were raised as protestants leave protestantism. I’m [...]

Our friend Kent Shaffer over at churchrelevence.com recently posted some stats from The University of Texas Health Science Center about middle school age kids and sex.
1/3 of students experienced sexual touching
12% of students experienced sex by age 12
7.9% of students experienced oral sex by age 12
6.5% of students experienced non traditional sex by age 12
4% [...]

A few months ago I published an article about singles in the church in The Banner (the denominational magazine of the Christian Reformed Church in North America).  I was glad after its publication to hear that my thoughts resonated with the experience of other singles, and now I’m writing some further thoughts about that article.
When [...]

(Bethany is a guest blogger for Think Christian.  Read more about her here.)
I’m a little late on this one, but I can’t stop thinking about it.  I was troubled by this editorial published in Slate a few weeks ago.  The author, Andrew Santella, uses the Obama family’s church-shopping in DC as a springboard to discuss [...]

I just had an inquiry from the Religion Editor at a major American weekly news magazine. She wants to know our take on the phrase “followers of Jesus,” particularly as an alternative to the term “Christian.” 
I see it on Facebook regularly, when some of my Christian friends describe their religious affiliation with a variety of terms that [...]