By Demi Prentiss, reprinted from Living God’s Mission. Those who know me have heard me quote the statistic that 99.2 percent of the church are laity. That is true across denominations in the U.S., and that means that all the clergy comprise less than one percent of the church. Laity – just like the ordained – are called to exercise…
Reprinted from Eternity. My friend Anthony told me an amazing story that illustrates the complicated concepts around serving, leading and being served. At the time Anthony held a senior role in a global community development charity. The organization did a lot of work funding churches in India to support their communities, and he travelled there to inspect the work. One…
By Marda Quon Stothers, reprinted from The 313. Dave Iverson is a writer, documentary film producer/director, and PBS broadcast journalist. Despite his own diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease, he decided at the age of 59 that, of three siblings, he had the most flexibility and could move into his childhood home in Menlo Park to take care of his 95-year-old mother,…
By David Williamson. Summertime reminds me of occasional trips in my younger days to the famous Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) of Northern Minnesota and Southern Ontario. I have great memories of leading groups of high-school kids into this rugged and beautiful country. This reminds me of the importance of tents – what they’re made of, how they’re made and…
By Ben Chang, reprinted from the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity. “I think it’s important to think about GPT-4 as a tool, not a creature.” These were the words of Sam Altman, owner of ChatGPT, who recently announced the opening of his company’s first international offices in London. But is it adequate to view “artificial intelligence” as a mere “tool”? I’m not so…
Reprinted from the Oikonomia Network. Our collection of EWP Talks on Spiritual Formation will give your students a bigger vision of what it means to be formed in Christlikeness. Against the spiritual bankruptcy of rote “box checking,” haranguing people to go through the motions of religious works and devotional exercises, these videos offer a vast new way to think about how we…
Reprinted from the Chalmers Center. Building God’s kingdom community means working to replace destructive formative practices with those that lead to true flourishing. The Ministry Design Principles we’re highlighting this week focus heavily on the relational aspect of poverty alleviation. After all, we are each innately relational beings with minds, affections, wills, and bodies, and we need to remember this…
Image: Witnesses to Truth, Abbot Lynn Bauman, 2023 By Brandon Beck, reprinted from Living God’s Mission. Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast faith and love, that through your grace we may proclaim your truth with boldness,and minister your justice with compassion; for the sake of our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the…
Reprinted from Eternity. A couple of years ago, I started researching and telling stories of some of the men and women in Australia’s past who demonstrated faith–work integration, that is, the ability to seamlessly move from Sunday to Monday. Nellie Martyn was one of my favorites. Nellie Constance Martyn (1887–1926) is one of those women whose story makes you wonder…
By David Gill, reprinted from Workplace 313. J. Daryl Charles is an affiliate sholar of the John Jay Institute and the author of twenty books, including the superb Wisdom and Work: Theological Reflections on Human Labor from Ecclesiastes (2021). In Our Secular Vocation, Charles draws again on Ecclesiastes but ranges far wider in scripture and history to provide one of the best and deepest…
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