Let me just start by confessing that I’ve written this blog three different times. Why? Because I’m a closet perfectionist and arrogance is a champion at masquerading itself. On the upside, I’ve been learning a lot about irony, as I’ve had to screen my blog(s) about arrogance for the very kind of arrogance I intend to discourage. The justice is sweet.
Read MoreThis summer Immanuel officially became an active affiliate of the Evangelical Covenant Church. It was a really big deal for us. The process was sometimes straightforward and easy, but other times fragile and halting.
Read MorePsalm 95: 6-7 “Come, let us worship Him. Everyone bow down; kneel before the Eternal who made us.
7 For He is our God and we are His people, the flock of His pasture, His sheep protected and nurtured by His hand. Today, if He speaks, hear His voice.”
School shootings are painful reminders that things are not how they should be. And when our sense of equilibrium is challenged by such an event, our responses reveal the brokenness of our world and of our own hearts.
Read MoreOn Saturday I went to lunch with my family for about two hours and I didn’t have my phone. You know what happened? Nothing. The world kept spinning; I was actually able to speak to my family without the lingering feeling in the back of my mind that I should pull up Facebook or check the status of who might have been injured on my fantasy football team.
Read MoreA little bit about me if you don’t know: my mother is white (Russian parents) and my dad is Mexican. My dad came to this country illegally after his mother passed while giving birth to his brother. My dad, as the oldest, was tasked with helping his dad with the other 9 kids and my dad knew America was the easiest way to do it.
Read MoreI’ve been struggling this past week with what happened in Charlottesville for many reasons.To start, I am a privileged white person – someone who grew up in a wealthy and primarily white conservative community.
Read MoreThis is a brief account of what I learned in my time as the Summer Intern of Immanuel Church in Spokane, WA. I hope this blog post both encourages and empowers you to lead, love and live life with more of a calling to the neighborhood/context you are in.
Read MoreI believe as we multiply reconciled communities of restored people there is an enormous kingdom impact in the cities in which we reside.A section of the book of Revelation talks about the healing of the nations.
Read MoreWhat do you say to someone who is suffering more than you have ever suffered? As a Christian and a person working in ministry, I face this question almost daily.
Read MoreI recently went backpacking with a group of friends. Preparing for this trip created in me a rather bizarre kind of anxiety. Some backdrop: I spent the last two summers as a mountain guide with Young Life’s Beyond Malibu, leading groups on intense, week-long mountaineering trips in remote British Columbia.
Read MoreA few weeks ago I sat in Jon and Emily Royal’s oh-so-familiar backyard (eating deliciously familiar popcorn), while a handful of YFC friends and neighbors read and talked through Psalm 51. I have always loved this psalm (probably because I have an over-active conscience that frequently lands me in a swamp of guilt), as praying this psalm has often brought peace to my tornado of a mind.
Read MoreI remember the first time I realized there was prejudice against female leadership in the church.I was a student leader my senior year in the youth group I grew up in – a conservative Baptist church.
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