Photography played a key role in 19th- and 20th-century Christian outreach and missions. In the early years of the 20th century, Jacob August Riis was spotlighting the squalid New York City neighborhoods where hundreds of thousands were packed into dank and dangerous tenements. Half a world away, Alice Seeley Harris was working to expose the…
“Rich Men North of Richmond” is disdainful towards people on welfare. Christians shouldn’t be. As a native of Appalachia, I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t aware of the plight of blue-collar Americans. Mine is a region shaped by the struggle for fair pay and safe working conditions. To this day, “coal country” for…
The late pastor sought to glorify God in his devotional life, his marriage, and his ministry. How he did so in his illness was no different. It was June 3, 2020. The subject line of the email from Kathy Keller made my heart sink: “Tim’s got pancreatic cancer.” The diagnosis was stage IV. With current…
Once the capital of the Hawaiian kingdom, Lahaina was home to Maui’s first church and seminary. In the aftermath of the worst disaster in memory on their island—the deadliest fire in US history—Maui’s Christians gathered on Sunday morning to offer prayers, continue to coordinate relief efforts, and mourn the loss around them. At Grace Bible…
The newly accredited school promotes a theological education that’s not at odds with culture. Much of Terry LeBlanc’s adult life has been driven by one question: Can you be fully Indigenous and fully a follower of Jesus? His answer has been a resounding yes. Over the past three decades, he and others have built a…
As the toll of overdoses continue to rise, congregations provide recovery, medical care, and redemption. It was the prayer requests that caught the new minister’s attention. Not long after Lisa Bryant arrived at the Madam Russell United Methodist Church, a historic congregation named for one of the original pioneers in Saltville, Virginia, she began to…
The particularities of people groups can aid the work of understanding and proclaiming the gospel. The worldwide growth of Christianity has brought about a flowering of theological perspectives. Yet many Western theologians have little familiarity with theologians working in non-Western contexts. Stephen T. Pardue, a professor at the Asia Graduate School of Theology, addresses this…
Our hearts aren’t prepared for the Lord until they are ready to love others. The Book of Luke, more than any of the other Gospels, presents a sweeping look at Jesus’ teachings on ethics. Over half the parables we have from Jesus are unique to Luke. They cover topics like how to steward money and…
“Sensitive” types like me won’t always mesh with more intimidating activists. But we need each other to thrive. In almost every nonprofit or social enterprise job I’ve had, at least one coworker terrified me. There was the boss who gave unexpectedly negative feedback on my performance review. There was the director who had sudden, inexplicable…
Mikhail Manzurin prayed for Ukraine during church services and eventually fled to the United States. In September 2022, five days after Russian president Vladimir Putin announced the mobilization of 300,000 military reservists to continue his country’s invasion of Ukraine, Mikhail Manzurin took a bus from Russia into Kazakhstan and did not return. The 25-year-old was…
