I know this is going to sound arrogant, but Kathy Escobar wrote her book, “Down We Go: Living into the Wild Ways of Jesus”, just for me.  Even though she does not know me, I do believe throughout the book she was speaking directly to me.  This assumption is confirmed in the dedication...

I am a total 80’s girl.  I think I was the inspiration for the Bowling for Soup song “1985.”  I love U2 and Blondie.  I do remember when there was music still on MTV and when Ozzie was a singer not an actor.  I also remember my desire to live like Madonna’s “Material Girl.” ...

Over on the Jesus Creed blog, Scott McKnight asks the question, “Is 1st Corinthians 15 a sketch of the full gospel or only part of it?”  Here is the heart of the passage under consideration,  1 Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you...

This week my daughter was told that she could not be a Christian and believe in evolution.  It led to a great discussion and thankfully she came to realize there are many ways to practice the Christian faith.  Now, if people trying to make her question her faith would just admit that basic...

I ran across this quote in a preview of Scot McKnight’s new book The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited in a post titled Did Jesus Preach the Gospel? on the Out of Ur blog. “McKnight is concerned that we have confused “Gospel” with “Plan of...

While many of you studied the story of David and Goliath (1 Samuel 17) in Sunday school, I did not really appreciate this story until I was in my early thirties and watched the Veggie Tales version called “Dave and the Giant Pickle.” So here is a quick refresher: Israel was at war...

With my new ipad and great tools like flipbook, I find I am spending more time reading blogs than books lately.  This week I stumbled upon several interesting but challenging posts.  Below are the highlights but I encourage you to visit the links and read the full article. These words from...

Last week, Embrace Richmond added a new staff member.  Scott had only been with us few days when he entered my office, shut my door and said, “I have something I really need to tell you.”  He had a very grim look on his face.  He said, “I have really enjoyed being here and I...

This month’s Synchroblog is titled, “Stories of the Wild Goose.”  Sadly, I was not able to attend the “Wild Goose Festival” which was held in late June on North Carolina.  This month’s theme will be capturing stories from the festival as well as “stories of how the Wild Goose...

I took two books on vacation with me earlier this year and read both while lying in the sun on the deck of a cruise ship in the Caribbean, which is of course the best way to tackle books rich with theological import.  The first was Rob Bell’s controversial book, “Love Wins: A Book About...

This past week, Jamie Arpin-Ricci a fellow urban missionary, pastor, church planter and writer, tweeted these words, “Everyone suffers from poor mental health at times. We’re not so different from those with mental illness.  End the stigma once & for all.”  Working with people...

I knew Shelly before she went to jail and stayed in contact with her during the 18 months she was locked up.  She never talked much about her spirituality but the one thing she wanted me to bring her when she got arrested was her recovery Bible.  When she was finally released, I helped her...