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For the written interview click here. For the full audio...

Mon, 10 Jun 2013 14:02:07 -0700

For the written interview click here.

For the full audio interview click here.

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Sun, 14 Apr 2013 20:27:08 -0700

The wood grains on the desk are still clear in my memory. Third...

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 19:56:10 -0700

The wood grains on the desk are still clear in my memory. Third grade, nine years old, and I already have an argument for why abortion should be legal. I was arguing (or restating what I had heard) with the kid next to me. We went at it with our kid-logic and arguments induced through parental osmosis.

Even after coming to a place of deep love for Christ, after being filled with the Holy Spirit, as a Freshman in college, I still white-knuckled the positions I had debated for 10 years.

But things changed as I began to see God at work in creation.

My change of heart began with simple things, the reading of the creation story, life unfurling like a spring seed at God’s beckoning. Then there was God blowing life into Adam. And Sarah’s cynical laughter giving way as her body filled with the beginning of a nation. Babies born through barren loins. Seeds opening up. Morning birthing new possibilities. God carrying his redemptive plot forward through births; what else are genealogies? Paul’s description of the beautiful and broken creation giving birth to something new. And then there is the Hebrew word for soul, which is not ethereal but earthy, “nephesh” meaning: “life”. Through seeing all this I saw God’s creator love for all that blooms and is born, his image-bearers at the center of this love.

God’s delight with life nudged my heart until I began to have new eyes.

So when I, two days ago, first heard about the Gosnell case, I felt pain and urgency weighing on me to the point of brokenness. The ‘snipping’ of birthed baby spines. The reports of Gosnell’s financial gain at the expense of the poor (some reports had him making 10-15k in a night). The other abysmal conditions. The oversight failure. Alleged jarred infant body parts throughout the abortion clinic. Words like “injustice” aren’t enough. Words like “satanic” are much closer.

As a pastor and student of the Bible I’m tempted to say it was God’s spirit grieving in me as I read through report after report. The feeling, thick and vague, remains in me now. Just before writing this my wife Kandice had to repeat herself multiple times as I looked off, distracted by the hellish gravity of it all.

How do we engage such a world?

I wonder that sometimes. What do we do with our anger, frustration and sadness as we sit feeling impotent to bring about change? I wonder this even as I spent two hours today teaching the interns I lead about different postures the church has historically taken towards the greater culture. Even as we discussed at length the missional impulse of the church and the need to practice restoration. When issues like Gosnell surface theory gives way to the visceral.

To offer “lists” or “steps” seems inadequate in the face of such slithering brutality and confusion but there are two things that come to mind.

1) We need, I believe, to practice redemptive mourning. There is a mourning that dwells in sickness and slouches towards despair. I have slipped towards this at times. So has my wife. So have many of my friends. Maybe you have. It is, of course, understandable in the face of the world’s terrors, the dull and the sharp.

Other times, I’ve avoided the numerous “Gosnells” that emerge each year, flipping channels, hoping they’ll vanish with a remote’s click. Ignoring the fact that there are numerous “Gosnells” that reporters never hear of, much less fail to report about. But neither the mourning that dwells in sickness nor the callous channeling flipping are redemptive.

Redemptive mourning dwells in hope and gazes unflinchingly into the barrenness of night. In the midst of this redemptive mourning, we remember that “He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” (Rev. 21:5).

2) When we mourn this way we are provoked to engage with redemptive creativity, because we know that God’s insistent, holy and passionate love does, in fact, win.

This creative engagement does not ‘show up’ with shocking signs and megaphones–or hate Tweets–but with nuance. An example is Gabe Lyons, founder of Q and father of a son with Downs Syndrome. Provoked by the 92% of aborted Downs Syndrome babies he chose not to picket but create something very simple – a brochure. In it, with the help of a photographer, Gabe gave an honest and beautiful picture of what it looks like to raise a child with Downs. He made appointments with doctors, presented the brochure and asked if the doctors might make it available to parents expecting a baby with Downs. The brochure, like a seed, broke open and grew–becoming something larger, something close to a movement. It is, from what I’ve heard, in a number of hospitals now. This is only one example, but I know there are others.

My thoughts, are still spinning. “What does Gosnell tell us about ourselves, if anything?” “What does it tell us about America? Our values? Our virtues?” I have ideas. But I keep zoning out, looking at my desk, the wood grains flowing in and out, moving towards the edge. There, resting on the grains, amidst the papers and half open books, is a picture of an ultrasound. It’s Zoey, our daughter who is now three. As I look at it I briefly I recall our hospital room and those hours of pain and thankfulness. Pain and thankfulness, it is not unlike what I feel now, the pangs of longing for a final restoration, this restoration that is as distant and inevitable as morning.

Does the Bible Tell Me So? || Janie StuartIn college, a common...

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 14:15:24 -0800

Does the Bible Tell Me So? || Janie Stuart

In college, a common question asked is, “What is God’s will for my life?” And this question…

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Spiritual FlossingGrowing up the daughter of a dentist has it’s...

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 09:06:04 -0800

Spiritual Flossing

Growing up the daughter of a dentist has it’s perks. For starters, my teeth look pretty good, I…

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Sat, 02 Mar 2013 07:50:47 -0800

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Sun, 24 Feb 2013 21:32:42 -0800

Check out The Unitive’s article with Ben...

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 09:42:02 -0800

Check out The Unitive’s article with Ben Witherington… www.theunitive.com

#wow big day at theunitive.com

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 16:27:58 -0800

#wow big day at theunitive.com

great finds at Goodwill. #theology

Sat, 02 Feb 2013 21:02:59 -0800

great finds at Goodwill. #theology

Lots of great new posts over at www.theunitive.com check...

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 11:36:56 -0800

Lots of great new posts over at www.theunitive.com check ‘em out…

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you:...

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 17:21:49 -0800

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. || 1 John 1:5

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. || 1 John 4:8

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. || 1 John 3:16

Oh God, Thou art lightning and love. || Gerard Manley Hopkins

"Lord, help us to labor under and from your love, not from and under (unrealistic) expectations."

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 08:22:06 -0800

“Lord, help us to labor under and from your love, not from and under (unrealistic)...

Exile. It’s one of those Bible words. Clunky. Nerdy. One...

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 10:33:31 -0800

Exile. It’s one of those Bible words. Clunky. Nerdy. One which never comes up in our every day life. Yet there are few concepts more critical to understanding the Bible and the very story of our lives.

Merriam-Webster defines exile as the state or period of forced absence from one’s country or home.

If you’re familiar with the Bible you might be aware that over half of the Old Testament deals with Israel’s exile from their homeland. Peeling back another layer we discover that all but three chapters of the Old Testament are about a people in exile. At the end of Genesis 3, Adam & Eve are driven out of Eden and from Genesis 3:24 onward, the story of all mankind focuses on our attempts and God’s work to bring us home. (read more)

We need to learn that when Jesus said on the cross, “It is...

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 20:40:55 -0800

We need to learn that when Jesus said on the cross, “It is finished.” He meant it. If you are in Christ: You are a new creation. You have been saved. Your debt has been paid. You have been reconciled. You are loved.

Tom Petty may have said it best, “the waiting is the hardest...

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 12:35:39 -0800

Tom Petty may have said it best, “the waiting is the hardest part.” And while it may not be the hardest, it certainly is not easy. We do not like waiting. Yet it is part of every day life.

Most of us are experienced in waiting

… for your ride to come

..for your hair to dry

…for your grades to post

…for your movie to download

…for your career to start

…for God to speak. (read more)

When Martin Luther King Jr., confronted racism in the white...

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 12:33:18 -0800

When Martin Luther King Jr., confronted racism in the white church in the South, he did not call on Southern churches to become more secular. Read his sermons and “Letter from Birmingham Jail” and see how he argued. He invoked God’s moral law and the Scripture. He called white Christians to be more true to their own beliefs and to realize what the Bible really teaches. He did not say “Truth is relative and everyone is free to determine what is right or wrong for them.” If everything is relative, there would have been no incentive for white people in the South to give up their power. Rather, Dr. King invoked the prophet Amos, who said, “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream” (Amos 5:24). The greatest champion of justice in our era knew that antidote to racism was not less Christianity, but a deeper and truer Christianity. (Tim Keller, Reason for God)

(Read more)

Eat your heart out Layrite Superhold Deluxe Pomade: You might...

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 15:07:21 -0800

Eat your heart out Layrite Superhold Deluxe Pomade: You might have generous access to Dan Kimball’s über-hip sandy blonde bouffant, but he let us into his mind. Count it.

Yes, Kimball (author of They Like Jesus but Not the Church) connected last week with one of The Unitive’s new contributors, Ben Tertin, who had first met him about four years ago. They got straight-up conversational, and they warmly welcome you to their chat below. (read more)

I am the way, the truth and the life. || Jesus

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 22:13:35 -0800

I am the way, the truth and the life. || Jesus

I have a hard time resting. It’s difficult for me to not...

Fri, 11 Jan 2013 14:24:48 -0800

I have a hard time resting. It’s difficult for me to not touch my phone for extended periods of time—it’s something I’m working on.

If I peered behind this compulsion, into my motivations, I’d see lots of things: a desire to be helpful, a need for approval and a fear of letting people down, just to name a few.

So here’s where Jesus continues to help me.

And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.” (Mark 1:35-37)

(read more)