Enjoy this medley of Cat Stevens songs from my recent “Diamond Cat” show, and come see me with full band on April 18 at the Gillespie Center in Mound at 7pm. Song medley: “Wild World” (1970); “Here Comes My Baby” (1966); “The First Cut is the Deepest” (1965); “Peace Train” (1971) … More #SaturdaySong – Cat Stevens Medley
Join me on a 3-week journey to a fuller understanding of the Cross and the Christian life. My foundational “CrossRoad” sermon series from 2019 has been distilled into six short beautifully illustrated videos. This was a defining moment for me as a pastor and teacher, when I drew a line in the sand and decided that the only Christianity worth our time is one that takes Jesus’ most scandalous teachings seriously. … More CrossRoad: Lent Video Series
This Gospel text thrusts us back into that darkened upper room where confused disciples hang on their teacher’s every last word. Ominous feelings fill the room and haunt every heart trying to make sense of this perplexing last meal together. How can such beauty come out of a situation so ugly? How can grace withstand such a tidal wave of heartlessness? How can love flow so freely between these river banks of betrayal? … More Twisted Love
I finally bought a tripod so I could capture some video clips of what I do at senior communities. We have a good time! Especially when I get to partner up with my good friend Kris, who really knows how to introduce a performer! Here’s some highlights from a recent show! … More Diamond Cat Highlights
Her life was one long slow-motion train wreck. Trouble and heartache seemed to follow her where ever she went. The depths of her inner emptiness dwarfed the Grand Canyon, while the river bed of her soul was a mere trickle next to the Colorado River. Here’s my modern retelling of the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. … More Woman at the Laundromat
For 20 years, I’ve been writing on the Christian life. Over 2,000+ articles published and 40 volumes of writings fill my shelves. What if there was a way to repackage my favorite articles and give old sermons a second life in a new digital form? Introducing my latest project: short visual summaries of some of my most thought-provoking articles, sermons, essays, and teachings over the years. … More NEW! Visual Sermons & Articles
Scot McKnight is walking through the encyclical by Pope Leo XIV, “Dilexi Te: Apostolic Exhortation on Love for the Poor.” The universal church can learn much from the thinking of the Roman Catholic Church on what the Bible demands pertaining to the poor. Unfortunately, these Biblical ideas have been branded “marxist” or “socialist” or “woke” or “anti-American” or worse in our day. … More Dilexi Te: On Love For the Poor
Heaven isn’t the point of the gospel—and N.T. Wright challenges the “accept Jesus and escape earth” narrative of Christianity. Curtis Chang talks with Wright, leading theologian and prolific author, about New Creation and his latest book asking whether the Bible’s promise is the Kingdom of God on earth—or simply going to heaven when you die. … More N. T. Wright: Heaven Isn’t the Endgame (Good Faith Podcast)
“Every pastor should carry a harmonica,” the woman said to me after my show Monday. I don’t know about that, but perhaps every pastor should have a side-hustle that’s a healthy escape from the heavier tasks of ministry, another way to share the love and joy of Christ. Mine happens to include wearing a harmonica … More “Every Pastor Should Carry a Harmonica”
MainStreet Covenant will be gathering Sunday evenings at 5-6:30pm this Lent to watch season 5 of The Chosen. Season 5 is a slow dramatization of the last week of Jesus’ life. We hope you’ll join us at St. Martin’s By the Lake for this experience. Here’s a brief review by Kate Luck of Christianity Today. … More Join us for The Chosen this Lent
American church attendance might be in decline, but spirituality is up. And, according to Nick Pompella, this is likely surprising for the onetime followers of New Atheism. New Atheism was an explosive social trend that ran rampant in the 2000s and early 2010s, defined by its most popular intellectuals and a fire-eater style that attracted young people as New Atheists actively picked fights about religion. … More Why New Atheism Crumbled
Stephen Colbert hosts outspoken Christian seminarian and Texas State Rep. James Talarico for an online-exclusive interview that touches on the issues raised in Talarico’s campaign for the Democratic nomination for Senate including the separation of church and state, the dangers of consolidated corporate-owned media, and the fabricated culture wars pushed by Republicans in states like Texas. … More Rep. James Talarico Talks Christianity & Politics on Colbert
I’m (blessedly) trapped in a blizzard in Two Harbors watching angry waves crash onto the shore of Superior. The 60+ mph wind gusts are ominous, but the snow piling up reminds me of the Lenten truth that “Though our sins be as scarlet, [God] will make us white as snow.” I’m reposting this piece to kick off Lent where I ask the same question as Lynyrd Skynyrd, “Ooh, What’s that Smell?” … More Ashes and Armpits
Introducing a short video and podcast conversation that revisits my urgent 2019 theological essay arguing that ethnic diversity should be viewed as a spiritual gift essential for the health and witness of the global Christian community. I challenge believers to move beyond nationalism and tribalism toward a “most excellent way” (1 Cor. 12:31) defined by suffering in solidarity with marginalized groups. … More Ethnicity and the Church: A More Excellent Way
What we are witnessing is not merely a political failure. It is a spiritual crisis. Why isn’t every Christian in the United States asking with a broken heart, how has the church arrived here? It reveals how easily American Christianity is tempted to trade its witness and its integrity for proximity to wealth and power. We are watching faith be hollowed out and repurposed, not to follow Jesus, but to shield cruelty, excuse racism, and sanctify domination. … More National Prayer Breakfast: A Den of Thieves
Tripp Fuller, born and raised a Southern Baptist with a love for Jesus and the Bible, like many, has watched in disbelief as very same people who taught him that “character counts” have become the most willing to defend and rationalize the immoral behavior of Trump and his movement. If you want to make sense of how we got here, this is one of the clearest and well-researched presentations I have seen. … More The Moral Collapse of White Evangelicalism
I intentionally seek out and share sources that cannot be simply be dismissed as woke, mainstream media propaganda, and here is another example. I stand in support of the National Association of Evangelicals’ statement, “Standing With Our Immigrant Neighbors in a Time of Crisis” and invite you to do the same. … More I Stand with the NAE
Jesus is meddling in politics again. Why doesn’t he just preach the gospel? To “go and do likewise” in this moment for many Jesus-followers in Minnesota means moving toward those who are being harmed and mistreated, showing mercy and standing in solidarity with them, being the healing presence of Jesus and bearing witness to those being left devastated (and sometimes dead) by the side of the road. … More Being a Neighbor, Showing Mercy in Minneapolis
We have set up an Immigrant Neighbor Crisis Fund to collect donations to go directly to the immigrant families in our partner church. Why? Because we are part of them, and they are part of us. To continue applying the metaphor, “The eye can never say to the hand, “I don’t need you,” just as the white part of the Body cannot say to the black or brown part, “I don’t need you.” “All of you TOGETHER are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it” (12:27). … More Help Heal Our Hurting Body
today I began my campaign of flooding the Facebook zone, not partisan talking points or angry rants, but the words of Jesus with a bit of commentary. We’ll see what becomes of these gospel pearls as they land on the wet, mucky ground of the Facebook pigpen. Here’s my first post. … More Casting Pearls
I’m not prophesying the imminent downfall of the political establishment or the nation as a whole. I am offering a timeless warning that reckless, animal-like behavior and a lack of “humanity” in places of power and influence can set in motion a slow downward spiral into self-destructive chaos—personal and societal. Exchanging “the mind of a man for the mind of an animal” is, after all, Paul’s diagnosis of sin-infected humanity in his great letter to the Christians in the capital city of Rome. Where does this lead? Read on. … More Planet of the Apes & Politicians
I reject dismissively labeling a fellow Christian as “woke” or “brainwashed by mainstream media” or a “lefty” just because they may critique the Right or fall left of center on certain issues. Why? Because many like me have come to hold their views by virtue of being a faithful Bible-believing, Evangelical Protestant upholding the conservative value of standing on the ancient text and testing (and often changing!) one’s views in light of the teachings of Jesus. … More Drinking the Kool-Aid
My wife and I moved to the Twin Cities 20 years ago. It’s the place where we’ve lived the longest, where we’ve raised our kids, where I have taught theology and pastored churches and grown rich in friendships. People sometimes ask me: Do you ever want to move back to Texas? Get out of that Minnesota weather? I always answer the same way (with no offense to my Texas roots). … More A Timely Word
On this MLK Day, we are reminded how badly we leaders of moral character and wisdom. This generation of well-meaning protesters filling the streets of my city lack the training in non-violent resistance that MLK taught and embodied. If we don’t hear words like following these days coming from our political leaders, maybe we should be turning our ears again to preachers like MLK. … More Our Need for MLK
Jesus was no stranger to bad weather. Once he criticized a first century weather forecaster, saying: “You can predict the weather, but not the signs of the times” (Matt 16:3). It doesn’t take a spiritual sage to read the signs of our times. A societal storm is raging and one scene in the Gospels seems to resonate with what we’re feeling. … More Remaining Calm in the Societal Storm
Jeremy Berg 