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...
