Today, many of us sink our weary heads onto our pillows and fall asleep staring at our smart phone screens, scrolling Facebook one last time, trying to clear our email inbox, or checking the newsfeed again. And studies keep revealing our tech habits are producing one of the most anxious and emotionally unsettled societies in … More A Bedtime Prayer (Psalm 4)
Here’s another favorite MainStreet moment as we celebrate our anniversary this January. Enjoy! I’m continually amazed looking back at the MainStreet journey to realize just how unprepared and unformed I was as a pastor to be attempting such a significant task. I marvel that the Covenant and Northwest Conference would invest so much time, energy … More MainStreet Memories: Stripping Off the False Self
On our anniversary this January, I’m sharing some favorite stories from the early days of planting MainStreet. Enjoy! Preachers make a living with words, and so we’re all too aware of the old adage that “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Equally as powerful as a picture is some dramatic participatory theater or a … More MainStreet Memories: Over Our Heads
It seems hardly necessary to make an argument for the universally experienced suffering and injustice prevalent in the world. If pain really is God’s “megaphone to rouse a deaf world”, as C. S. Lewis argued, then the message is deafeningly clear and God might consider turning the volume down a bit. What then is the church’s appropriate response to the world’s injustice and suffering? … More A Case for a Cruciform Justice
On the occasion MainStreet’s anniversary this January, I’m sharing some favorite stories I’ve written down for a forthcoming book documenting the MainStreet journey. Enjoy! In September of 2011 we were preparing for our first monthly preview worship service at the Gillespie Center. I remember that spring looking at our small, tired launch team and saying, “Well, … More MainStreet Memories: Crown Connection
Most colleges and university programs have favorite professors who sometimes have long waiting lists to get into their most popular classes. When I was an undergrad at Bethel University (1998-2002), one such class was “The Life & Teachings of Paul” taught by Dr. Michael Holmes. (The only class in the Bible & Theology department that … More Sages Then & Now: Philo
On the occasion of our 6th anniversary, I want to share some favorite memories from a book I’m working on documenting the MainStreet journey. Enjoy! Church planting is not for the faint of heart. It is frontline missionary work with a high casualty rate. More church plants fail and than succeed. Many wide-eyed dreamers set … More MainStreet Memories: Across the Lake
I’m in Chicago all week in a classroom full of doctoral students with noses in ancient texts, studying the role of teachers and students, prophets and scribes, literacy and illiteracy in the ancient world. Our course has the somewhat laudatory title: Becoming Doctors of the Church. I’m sharing some thoughts and insights from my studies for … More Sages Then & Now: Ben Sira
A friend in ministry just texted me a light and fluffy Friday afternoon question: “I’m laying out a vision for Discipleship with my people on Monday. What are 3 awesome things about being a disciple? What are 3 awesome things about making disciples?” He might as well have asked me to sum up the mystery … More Aching & Yearning for the Kingdom
Every January we celebrate MainStreet’s birthday. On the occasion of our 6th anniversary since launching weekly worship in January 2012, I want to share some favorite memories from a forthcoming book documenting the MainStreet journey. Enjoy! In the summer of 2010 we were given the green light by the Northwest Conference and Church Planting Director, … More MainStreet Memories: God’s List
“The theology of Bethlehem and Golgotha—that is, of the enfleshment and the cross-bearing of the divine Word—directs us from the lonely and morbid contemplation of our own real suffering to the suffering of God in solidarity with us. Because God is “with us,” our suffering, though abysmally real, is given both a new perspective and … More QUOTABLES: The Suffering God
“Stars cross the sky, wise men journey from pagan lands, earth receives its savior in a cave. Let there be no one without a gift to offer, no one without gratitude as we celebrate the salvation of the world, the birthday of the human race. Now it is no longer, “dust you are and to … More Basil the Great: Epiphany
“For my own part I tend to find the doctrinal books often more helpful in devotion than the devotional books, and I rather suspect that the same experience may await many others. I believe that many who find that “nothing happens” when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find … More QUOTABLES: On Reading ‘Thick’ Books
I picked up a very old (1887) biography of Henry Ward Beecher over Christmas, as I occasionally like to read (and hold and smell and marvel at the beautiful cover art of) vintage books. I know very little about this influential man from the Civil War era and I’m immediately discovering his unparalleled gift for … More Henry Ward Beecher on Cynicism
A pastor once challenged his congregation, “I’m not going to preach on another Bible verse until we start obeying and living out the one I preached on last week.” He supposedly preached on that same verse an entire year, or so the story goes. … More New Year: One Verse
“How are you doing today?” I asked Rob (not his real name), and extended a hand. “I am blessed,” he proclaimed, then asked pointedly, “What else can I say?” Rob and I stepped out into the cold December day. We crossed the busy Minneapolis street and headed to the car, where my colleague unlocked the … More Warmth & Kindness (by Rachel Evans)
“I’ll retire when they pry my cold, dead fingers off of my Bible.” -R.C. Sproul R.C. Sproul died this past week and so we mourn the loss of one of the stalwart defenders of the faith and larger-than-life Bible teachers of the last century. Here’s my meager tribute. My college years at Bethel were a … More R. C. Sproul (1939-2017)
I just sent a very strange, funny and slightly embarrassing email to a former teacher and coach at my high school. In a former life, I was a star basketball player who held the all-time leading scoring record at my high school for quite a while. My career total of 1,307 points was immortalized in “permanent” marker on a ball inside a trophy case near the gymnasium. … More My Fading Glory
By Nancy Adsem I make mittens. I love the search for old wool sweaters and great buttons – the cutting and stitching and lining with fleece. Each pair is different and, I think, has a unique “personality”. Each fall I gather with another mitten friend, and we sell our mittens at an out-door Christmas festival … More Mittens for Yvonne (by Nancy Adsem)
by Allan Bevere Now that the special Senate election in Alabama is over, it is time for some Christians on both sides of the political aisle to repent of selling their souls in exchange for temporal political power. Conservative Christians who supported Roy Moore in spite of the fact that there were numerous credible women … More It Needed to be Said
“As Jesus came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began to weep. “How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace. But now it is too late, and peace is hidden from your eyes” (Luke 19:42). Jerusalem was in the news as President Trump announced the … More Jesus & the Palestinian Woman
I owe more to N.T. Wright for my understanding of faith and the Bible than anyone else. Period. If you’ve never read a book by Wright, this might be a nice way to ease into his style and brilliance this season of Advent. From the publisher: Advent for Everyone: A Journey with the Apostles provides … More The Wright Christmas Gifts
Two voices spoke from single face: One named truth, the other grace. Truth was stern, direct and strong, Truth declared the right from wrong. Truth proclaimed the pure and right, Truth distinguished dark from light. Everything he spoke was true; Truth had perfect point of view. Overwhelmed by all he said, I sat, I wept … More Truth & Grace (by Darrelyn Tutt)
When God’s Word is unleashed in a room with passion and fervor, let people drop to their knees with conviction, rise up with cheers of excitement, or form an angry mob and try to throw me off a cliff; just deliver me from the spiritual wet blanket of indifference. … More Deliver Me From Indifference
I took a long, deep breath and caught a strong whiff of a memory of a moment that probably never happened. Was I smelling joy or sadness, gratitude or longing in that old pole shed? Was I really searching for an old book in that oversized shed, or something less tangible like a feeling of nostalgia, or a burst of joy, or the echo of a memory of a time I never knew and a place I never lived when things were perhaps simpler, more wholesome. … More Antiquing: In Search of Something
Jeremy Berg 