I'm writing another book!
A few weeks ago I signed a contract with InterVarsity Press to write the book I've been thinking about for the past decade, tentatively titled Communities of...
Rethinking Reconciled Relationships
Relationship doesn't distract from material injustice; it makes dealing with it unavoidable.
"Great good is done while we're asleep."
The author of a book I recently finished grew up on a Midwestern farm. He wrote lovingly of his father, a man whose difficult work didn't keep him from...
The Cost of Justice
Here are two anecdotes to illustrate what's been on my mind this week. First, earlier this week I was on a video call with a church from the east cost...
Moral Weirdos
Earlier this summer I joined about 60 other Chicago-area faith leaders for a die-in at a gun shop a few miles outside city limits. We were compelled to...
Where Was the White Church?
This week I got to speak at a conference focused on justice hosted by Progressive Baptist Church here in Chicago. Here is a lightly edited version of what I...
Telling the Truth Like Someone's Life Depends on It
Last week, following the terrible massacre in Uvalde, Texas Governor Greg Abbott used Chicago as an example of why stricter gun laws wouldn't have prevented...
Where Hope Can Have Its Way
Driving to the church office earlier this week, I listened to the latest report from Uvalde, Texas. The reporter was interviewing residents of that...
The Language and Culture of Shalom
Marcus Briggs-Cloud is a linguist and the co-director of Ekvn-Yefolecv, "an Indigenous ecovillage community in Weogufka, Alabama comprised of Maskoke persons...
What Sort of Cultural Engagement?
Next month I'm running the Race Against Gun Violence in support of New Community Outreach, our church's nonprofit organization which engages young people in...
Living Peaceably With Creation
The following is a sermon I preached last Sunday about Jesus' invitation to live peaceably with God's creation. And please don't miss the invitation below...
Universal Communion
In Marilynne Robinson's novel, Gilead, an elderly clergyman writes to his much younger son, "This is an interesting planet. It deserves all the attention you...
The Barrier of Status
Today I'm featuring an excerpt from Amy Julia Becker's new book, To Be Made Well: An Invitation to Wholeness, Healing, and Hope. I got to read a early...
Accepting Our Creatureliness
Is watching, scrolling, and sharing the best we can do in response to yet another televised war? I want the act of watching a war unfold on the other side of...
Cynicism is not Inevitable
A sermon about the truth which abides, even in our cynical age. To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my...
Compassion Isn't Enough
Thinking with James Cone about the fickle nature of white compassion and about a deeper and stronger alternative. In an article published twenty-two years...
Grieving a Demographic Decrease
Can we give white people the space to grieve? Should we? On Friday I got to facilitate a conversation between six ministry colleagues from around the country...
Insurrection, Idolatry, and an Invitation to Risky Discipleship
A call for the church to respond courageously to insurrection and idolatry. In the days following the January 6 insurrection, a lot of us tried to make sense...
My Year With Books
Making it through a long year with the help of some good books. How long is a year? A few days ago our oldest son counted off the few remaining days until...
The Radicals
On rejecting the radical life for one of harmony. In Richard Powers' beautiful novel The Overstory we are introduced to a group of very different people...
Life Below the Surface
We need good pastors who will show us the way to the abundant, non-utilitarian way of life. Once or twice each year our family makes the eight-hour drive...
Having Better Conversations About Race
A climate scientist prepares us for hard conversations about racial justice... just in time for those awkward holiday gatherings. The best book about racial...
Can you lead where you've not been? I sure hope so!
It's officially fall here in Chicago. I know this because a couple of days ago I roasted and blended a bunch of pumpkins for pies and soups - pumpkin and...
Know Your Divisions
Yesterday afternoon I was talking with a couple of friends who both serve churches in small Midwestern towns. They are thoughtful and humble leaders in their...
Deliver Me From Fear of Their Fear
Today I'm wrestling with a tension common to racial justice work: it is possible to tell the truth to white people? But first.. Next week I'll run the Race...
Do you know your trees?
I finished reading a new book about trees on a day this week when the news around the world was once again overwhelming and terrible. In Afghanistan people...
Leveraging Privilege to Create Systemic Change
This week's newsletter features an excerpt from my friend Dominique Gilliard's new book. But first... Earlier this summer I got to spend some time in NYC...
"...a reproach before God and the world."
There is a strange warning being passed around these days and I expect, with Independence Day coming up, its urgency will be heightened. It comes in...
There is Freedom: A Sermon for Juneteenth
Today, June 19th, is Juneteenth, a holiday our church has incorporated into our Sunday worship for the past few years. This is a lightly edited version of my...
When the Colonizer is One of Your Own
In this week’s newsletter I’m delighted to feature the following reflection by Dr. Suzie Sang. Dr. Sang responded to my recent social media post - “Beware...
Singing in the Dark
Johnny Dark At some point each day, having listened to the same song most of the day, Johnny Dark takes out his phone, points it toward a mirror in his...
CRT: Enough Already!
I can predict when it will happen. During the past twelve months, I’ve been invited to more online Q & A sessions than I can remember with groups around the...
Who gets to determine the ideal?
Earlier this week I posted the following reflection on social media. It provoked enough responses there that I thought it might be worth sharing here as...
Lamenting and Praising
Like most of you, I was paying close attention earlier this week to the verdict in the trial for the man who murdered George Floyd. Also like many of you, I...
The God Who Sees
In this week’s newsletter I’m sharing a lightly edited version of my sermon today from Genesis 16. There’s something powerful about being seen. This is...
Leaving the White Church for What?
Last week I listened to a powerful episode of one of my favorite podcasts, Pass the Mic, hosted by Jemar Tisby and Tyler Burns. In it, Tisby describes his...
Worship → Justice → Worship
Last week I shared ten characteristics of biblical justice. (If you're interested, I expanded the the list into an article for Missio Alliance.) Of those...
10 Characteristics of Biblical Justice
This week I spoke (online) at a church in California. They had assigned me the topic of biblical justice which ended up being a good excuse to think about...
Unexceptional in Exile
One of the things about being in a wilderness or exile situation is that you really want to believe you’re not. Maybe this is what made the recently...
Manifest Destiny and Black Faith
Not long ago I noticed how often over the past few years I’ve been returning to the biblical themes of wilderness and exile. There’s a lot to say about these...
Terror, Trauma, and Better Questions
Last week Ed Stetzer, director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College, was interviewed by NPR about the white evangelical presence at the U.S. Capitol...
My Year With Books
Happy New Year everyone! Click here for a version of this newsletter with links to each of the books I mention below. I wish I could remember what I was...
Christianity ≠ White Supremacy
Earlier this week I finished Vince L. Bantu’s new book about the global nature of early Christianity, A Multitude of All Peoples. It’s a fascinating look at...
Diplomacy Doesn't Work
During our ministry staff devotions this week we ended up talking about what our Christian responsibility is to those in positions of power whose attitudes...
Hoping in Herod: An Election Day Lament
On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. They shouted, “This is the voice of a...
Loving Opposition
On Wednesday, two weeks prior to the election, our church began two weeks of prayer and fasting. For a template we are using a list of 10 commitments that...
Your vote matters less than you think. But also, way more.
No matter who wins the election, God is still sovereign! How many versions of this sentiment have you heard expressed during an election cycle? In my...
Local Countercultures of Reconciliation and Justice
I’ve recently been listening to “Motive”, a podcast produced by our local NPR station about the rise of of neo-Nazi skinheads in Chicago and beyond in the...
The Truth of the Protest
Why is it that you can know how terribly something will turn out and still be devastated when it does? This is what I was wondering on Wednesday afternoon...
Acknowledgment is better than ignorance. Confession is even better.
A quick appeal before getting to the rest of the newsletter: One of the hats I wear is that of CEO of New Community Outreach, a nonprofit launched by our...