Reprinted from the Oikonomia Network. I’m grateful to write this seminary spotlight on behalf of The Commonweal Project at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. I benefited from The Commonweal Project as a new student at Southern, grew with it through my MDiv, and now, get to serve it as its managing fellow. I started at Southern in fall of 2014, and…
By Michelle Koh, reprinted from her blog; via the Salt & Light Australia Daily Devotional. Recently, I found myself needing some medical care urgently on the weekend. Unfortunately, there were outside my regular doctor’s work hours, so I proceeded to call a service that provided a call out service. When that doctor arrived, I was shocked. Not simply because he didn’t…
By David Williamson. “He was Toro Company’s ‘Servant Leader’” was the headline in the morning’s business section of the local newspaper (the Minneapolis Star Tribune), announcing the death of Ken Melrose, who had been president and CEO of Toro for nearly 25 years. Ken was a brother in Christ and friend, whose Christian faith was “under the radar.” Yet it…
By Paige Wiley, reprinted from Made to Flourish. This year, graduation came and went, and the world’s new normal has yet to be established. For those who graduated during more “precedented” times, there were plenty of graduation ceremonies, parties, and caps and gowns to go around. But this year is different, in more ways than one. Normally, students would be…
By Lisa Slayton; part four of a series. Reprinted from The Wholeness Journey. Last fall my husband and I took a wonderful trip to central Italy. After a few days in Bologna, we headed to Florence and Tuscany. On our way, we detoured slightly to stop at the Ferrari and Lamborghini factories. These stops included the opportunity for us to drive a…
By Fletcher Lowe, reprinted from Living God’s Mission. You may have heard the story of a recent conversation between the Devil and God. Gleefully the devil says, “Well, God, looks like I have beat you this time. My virus has shut down all your churches just as I planned.” God replies, “You are correct that the church buildings are closed…
By Darren Lim, reprinted from the Salt & Light Australia Daily Devotional. One of the things our team at work have been doing recently to maintain some sort of social connection and to enable some of the newer members of our team to get to know one another is something called coffee roulette. Basically you’re paired up with another member of…
By Lisa Slayton; part three of a series. Reprinted from The Wholeness Journey. In the fall of 1983, I bought my first new car. It was a red 1984 Toyota Corolla. It was a five-speed and it was zippy. By now my ability to handle a clutch was pretty good. But this new one still took a bit of time to become…
By David Gill, reprinted from The 313. Workers On Arrival: Black Labor in the Making of America by Joe William Trotter, Jr.(University of California, 2019) Joe William Trotter, Jr., is distinguished professor of history at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Workers on Arrival is a superb, meticulously researched account of the contributions and challenges of black workers throughout American history. The focus here is not all…
Reprinted from Workship. There have been a lot of terrible things that have happened in the area that takes up most of our lives, that is work, during this time of coronavirus: Many people have lost their jobs as a result of the pandemic; and hardest hit are people with precarious work in hospitality, the arts and tourism Some people…
The Green Room 