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July 2023

July 28, 2023

Christian Education: From Teaching to Co-learning

Once, at a work-related social event, I ran into someone I recognized. Let’s call him...

July 21, 2023

What If Sermons Were a Conversation?

Every now and then, I find myself in a one-sided “conversation.” Probably at least in...

July 11, 2023

I Take Sermons With a Grain of Salt

I’m not ashamed to say it. These days, I take sermons with a grain of...

June 2023

June 14, 2023

It’s Not Just Hillsong

As I watched the recent docu-series The Secrets of Hillsong, I found myself thinking: It’s...

May 2023

May 26, 2023

Let Them Kick You Out

I’ve been thinking about the threat of being asked to leave a church or other...

May 19, 2023

What’s a Good Person, Anyway?

Sometimes I feel the urge to try to prove my “good”ness. Many times, I resist...

April 2023

April 21, 2023

Say “No” to Religious Shame

When we talk about religious authority, we need to talk about how to resist that...

April 12, 2023

Building Our “No” Muscles

A couple years back, when I was still pretty new at my current church, my...

March 2023

March 10, 2023

Religious Authorities Are Not God

Religious structures and systems are not God. And religious authority figures are not God. This...

March 03, 2023

Learning to “Authorize” Ourselves

As we consider non-authoritarian ways of reading the Bible—as well as non-authoritarian ways of speaking...

February 2023

February 24, 2023

What Kind of Authority Does Tradition Have?

I’ve been reflecting on how my views of faith and authority have changed over time....

December 2022

December 20, 2022

Reading the Bible, Avoiding Authoritarianism

Looking to the Bible for guidance, as I wrote about last week, is a little...

December 09, 2022

The Bible is Inspired…and Complex

I was in a church class, and we were discussing a controversial issue. Part of...

December 07, 2022

What Does It Mean to Take the Bible Seriously?

“The Bible is our middle name,” I told the group of college students seated around...

December 01, 2022

A Crisis of Authority (or, Life in the Mud)

Crises of authority can come in many different forms. But most people who seriously reexamine...