There's something powerful about the beginning of a new year. We make resolutions, set goals, and promise ourselves that this time will be different. Yet statistics tell us that by mid-January, most of those commitments have already faded. The desire for change is real, but sustaining it proves remarkably difficult.This same pattern often shows up in our faith lives. We know we should be more enga...  Read More

The statistics are sobering. Since the year 2000, the number of Americans who never attend church has been climbing steadily upward, while weekly attendance has plummeted. Before the pandemic, approximately 3,500 people were leaving congregations every day—that's 1.2 million American Christians walking away from church every year. Today, church participation among U.S. adults has fallen below 50% ...  Read More

Every January, Christians around the world pause to remember a pivotal moment in the Gospel narrative: the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River. This event, seemingly simple on its surface, opens profound questions about identity, belonging, and what it truly means to live as children of God. Picture the scene: John the Baptist, wild-haired and clothed in camel skin, stands in the muddy waters of ...  Read More

There's something powerful about the word "epiphany." It captures those rare, breathtaking moments when everything suddenly clicks—when understanding crashes over us like a wave and we see the world differently than we did just seconds before. These are the moments that change us, that reorient our compass, that illuminate what was previously hidden in shadow.Epiphany Sunday, celebrated near Janua...  Read More

We've made it past the first day of Christmas, but the celebration is far from over. While most of us don't celebrate our own birthdays for twelve days straight, when it comes to Jesus, twelve days might not even be enough time to fully embrace the magnitude of what happened in that humble manger.There's something beautifully exhausting about the Christmas season. The parties, the preparations, th...  Read More

In this final supernatural visit, the old miser is shown the aftermath of his own death. He witnesses strangers selling his possessions to a fence, laughing that he wouldn't need them anymore. He hears people across the city celebrating the death of someone whose actions had actively harmed their lives. The revelation hits with devastating clarity—they're talking about him. His death brings joy to...  Read More

There's something profoundly uncomfortable about looking in a mirror and seeing ourselves as we truly are. Not the filtered version we present to the world, not the person we imagine ourselves to be, but the raw, unvarnished truth of our current reality. This is exactly what happens to Ebenezer Scrooge when the Ghost of Christmas Present arrives.Unlike the Ghost of Christmas Past who shows what wa...  Read More

The word "Scrooge" didn't exist before Charles Dickens invented it. Now it's part of our everyday vocabulary—we all know what it means to call someone a Scrooge. It describes that person who's grumpy, disconnected, unwilling to join in the joy around them. But here's the fascinating question: How did Scrooge become Scrooge?This Advent season invites us into a profound reflection, using the familia...  Read More

There's something about Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol that refuses to let go of our collective imagination. The story has been retold countless times—through Muppets, animated ducks, Broadway musicals, and serious dramatic interpretations. We all know Scrooge, even if we've never read the original novella. His name has become synonymous with miserliness, with a heart closed off to joy and gen...  Read More

This isn't a question we can answer casually or dismiss with religious platitudes. It's the most important question we'll ever face, and our answer—or lack thereof—shapes everything about how we live.  Read More

There's something profoundly simple yet deeply mysterious about the resurrection accounts in Scripture. We often focus on the empty tomb, the rolled-away stone, or the dramatic appearances of the risen Christ. But have you ever stopped to consider why Jesus ate fish with his disciples after rising from the dead?This seemingly mundane detail—a meal shared on a lakeshore—holds within it a powerful c...  Read More

There's a question that has echoed through two thousand years of human history, a question that has sparked countless debates in marketplaces, universities, coffee shops, and living rooms. It's a question that deserves our honest attention, our careful thought, and our willingness to be challenged: Who is Jesus?Not who do we think he should be. Not who we've been told he is. But who does he actual...  Read More