Our church recently completed a 12-week exploration of “The Cruciform Kingdom,” focusing on the essence of Christ-like love, non-violence, and peacemaking. Jesse P. Nickel’s “A Revolutionary Jesus” highlights Jesus’ role as a peacemaker, emphasizing the significance of the cross in understanding his victory over evil through non-violent means. … More The Victory of the Cross
I’m reposting this from years ago as we begin our Sunday course on The Cruciform Kingdom of God. -JB In my CrossRoad sermon series (March 2019), I tried to take a step back and be more “explicit” about the core biblical concepts that undergird my teaching. For the sake of clarity, five key themes that … More Key Themes in Kingdom Thinking and Living
Paul warned the Corinthians that the cross-shaped wisdom and power of Jesus Kingdom seems foolish and weak to the worldly mind. If so, we need Jesus to rewire our minds, change our way of thinking and to have “the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16). Toward this end, we invite you to join us this spring for a video course, The Cruciform Kingdom of God taught by Dr. Greg Boyd. Here’s a taste to whet your appetite. … More NEW Class: The Cruciform Kingdom
Professor David Fitch reflects on life after Easter, emphasizing the struggle Christians face between the victory of Christ’s resurrection and the ongoing presence of evil in the world. He draws parallels with Marthe Cohn’s experiences during WWII, urging believers to actively participate in God’s reign and proclaim Jesus as the ultimate Lord amidst current chaos and challenges. … More Let Jesus Reign (David Fitch)
Today I’m sharing an editorial piece on the so-called cat-eaters of Springfield and a song by Jon Guerra that will pierce your heart and leave you in tears. The closing line is “Power has several prizes,
Handcuffs can come in all sizes,
Love has a million disguises,
But winning is simply not one.” … More Exotic Cat-Eaters and Christian Citizenship
Ephesians 2:1-10 expands our understanding of salvation, highlighting the ongoing battle against the unholy trinity. Salvation is not just about forgiveness, but about being raised up with Christ and fulfilling our divine role as rulers over creation. This calls for a deeper engagement with the Church’s role in manifesting God’s kingdom on earth. … More Seated in Heavenly Places
The ‘gospel’ many have been taught has drifted from Jesus’ original message. Weighed down by a hyper-individualism, we’ve bought a neat little salvation package whereby sinners bow their heads, pray a prayer, pull the grace lever and a bookkeeping angel with big-rimmed glasses moves your name from the Damned column to the Saved column in Heaven’s database. … More The Time is Fulfilled! Change Your Thinkin’!
Christmas 2019 Christianity Today published a scorching editorial decrying Trump’s immoral character. The Christianity Today website “crashed” from all the traffic swarming to read it. I wondered why so many were caught up in Caesar’s politics the week our focus should be on the new politics born in Bethlehem’s manger. … More Trump, Evangelicalism, and the Kingdom
The Jewish Messianic hope was often contaminated by a nationalist fervor that had God’s people thinking the Messiah was coming to take the country back for God from the unbelieving Gentiles in power, and bring swift judgment on the less zealous and insufficiently patriotic religious compromisers. … More When God’s Glory Appeared & Wept
The week between Christmas and New Year’s gets many in the counting mood. Counting how many gifts we need to return. Counting how little money is left in the checking account. Counting how many cookie calories we’ve consumed. Counting how many pounds we need to shed when we hit the gym in the New Year. But it turns out that what we choose to count may tell you a lot about what we value. … More Counting on Christmas
Let everyone around us fawn at the big-budget political mayhem swirling continuously around us. Let us keep our focus on the little pop-out window on the screen of history that bows humbly before the manger and stands in awe with lowly shepherds. Let worldly politics be a little side hobby (though I don’t recommend it!), and let King Jesus and his upside-down politics rule in our hearts and minds continuously. … More Split Screen Lives
INTRODUCTION From the beginning, the question of how Christians should relate to the rest of society has continually been raised and reevaluated. In retrospect, it is apparent that the church has never achieved unanimous agreement over the issue of Christian social responsibility. History documents many movements toward a position of noninvolvement or even absolute separation … More Love, Justice & the Kingdom: A Christian Social Ethic
In the age of cancel culture, mercy makes enemies. David French explores why compassion can be so divisive in Jesus’ day and ours. … More Why Compassion Is Divisive (David French)
I saw an ad today inviting leaders, content creators, and influencers to learn how to make their faith go viral. What if we instead focus on helping Jesus’ faith and ethics go viral? … More Viral Jesus For an Infected Church
Many Christians’ faith is more about reaching a destination (Heaven) and avoiding another (Hell), than it is about adjusting our eyes to the light of God’s Kingdom and contemplating His divine glory now. … More Seeing the Kingdom of God
Rather than a road map to the last days or a cryptic code to unlock, the Book of Revelation is a powerful manual for “theopolitical discipleship.” Revelation is a practical guide for how to live as faithful representatives of Jesus’ upside down kingdom in the midst of worldly systems and powers. … More Book of Revelation: Theopolitical Discipleship (5-Part Video Overview)
I love the Geico commercial where a guy who is putting down chalk lines on a baseball field starts daydreaming that he’s swerving through the mountains on his motorcycle singing, “Build Me Up Butter Cup.” He snaps out of it to find curvy chalk lines all over the baseball field. He asks, “Do you think anyone will notice?” … More “You Had Just ONE Job!”
A few words in response to the Derek Chauvin trial verdict by myself and NWC Superintendent Mark Stromberg. … More A Word on the Chauvin Trial Verdict
Dominionism, and the Christian nationalism it has spawned, are antithetical to the cross. It is a false gospel and those who preach it have their minds set on the things of man (fear, power, and control) and not the things of God (faith, hope, and love). … More This is the Way (Skye Jethani)
When radicalized Trump supporters, incited by the Presidents ongoing lies and toxic twitter, stormed the capitol yesterday and desecrated the temple of our democracy, many churches called an emergency prayer meeting last night. We called a parking lot prayer meeting as well, and I issued a pastoral letter in response to the day’s disturbing events. … More Trumpism and the Failure of Discipleship
Tonight we watch the clock tick-tock until we turn, turn, turn the page to a New Year and lay to rest a difficult one! I was inspired to adapt Ecclesiastes 3:1-13 made memorable by the 60’s hippy band “The Byrds.” Here’s my remix for Kingdom disciples. … More ‘Turn, Turn, Turn’ – A Kingdom Remix
While the “Most Likely To Succeed” badge may come with a superstitious curse attached, the “Class Mooch” has a very real cultural curse attached to it. In America we celebrate self-made successful people, and look down on the moochers who are dependent on others. What do we make of Jesus’s 3rd Beatitude that seems to promise the farm to the underachieving brother? … More Blessed are the Underachievers
The blessings of Bethlehem don’t fly up to the mighty on the mountaintops, but flow downward into the valleys flooded with the tears of the mourners—from Bethlehem to Sandy Hook. … More Blessed are the Emotional Wrecks
Ebenezer Scrooge had a hard time grasping and embracing the spirit and message of Christmas. The rich and self-sufficient always do. Their own personal kingdoms loom so large that they have a hard time making room for God’s Kingdom—and all the poor and lowly riff-raff to whom it belongs. … More Blessed are the Poor Shepherds
The Bethlehem Revolution is for all who find themselves at the end of their rope; for those who have hit the wall; for all who have climbed to the top of the ladder only to be pushed off, and can’t find the strength to start climbing again. … More Beatitudes of Bethlehem – Intro
Jeremy L. Berg 