Race Relations: My Journey

What follows is just what the title suggests, my personal journey with race relations as an American-born United States citizen. I was born just after the “end” of what history has come to call the Civil Rights Movement. Greenville, South Carolina, a town with its own infamous history of racial tension, was my birthplace. From […]

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What Would You Do For A Job?

I’ve been asking myself this question recently on a number of levels. In just a moment and in unusual order, I’ll start with the answer and work backwards. First you need to know that I have been unexpectedly unemployed for the last three months. For the first time since I was 14 years old I […]

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Churches As Hospitals

The other day I posted the above quote. It raised quite a bit of online and offline discussion. So much so, that I felt it could and should be discussed further. In my understanding, this quote is an analogous attempt to contrast two ideas. 1.) Churches as museums… where ideas and artifacts and histories are […]

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Gender Identity & A High Regard for Scripture: A Review of Understanding Gender Dysphoria

Disclaimer: the post that follows is a recent book review that I did for a Christian publisher. As such, I was mainly critiquing the author’s work. The main title for this review borrows a quote from the book’s author, Mark Yarhouse. He details a disparaging story (as most of his eventually are) of a man who, […]

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Do Good Christians Doubt?

Do good Christians doubt? The way I have heard most Christians respond to this question seems to imply that true faith seeks to resist and eliminate doubt. I find such an approach to be disingenuous, misleading, and downright destructive. Let’s talk about why.

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Identity: Knowing Who You Are

I’d like to begin by exposing my qualifications for writing on this topic. For the last 44+ years I have been trying to discover who I am. Like you, there have been times I thought I was getting close and many more moments that I simply did not have a clue. And while this is entirely […]

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God’s Most Difficult Command

The Bible is filled with commands that followers of Jesus are meant to embrace. Perhaps none is more difficult than the one found in Proverbs 3:5-6… Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do… Sounds simple, you say? I suppose at […]

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A November Experiment

For the last two years I have been trying to find and establish an identity that defines “re:THINK”. I have listened and written and observed your responses to conversations. As I have said from the beginning, I especially enjoy challenging followers of Jesus to reexamine, reevaluate, and re:THINK what it means to be Christian. During the […]

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Vineyard: A Parable

Throughout the Scriptures we hear teachings that refer to vineyards… and for good reason. Vineyards were good object lessons because they were everywhere. I can visually identify with this. One unexpected blessing of living in southwest Michigan was its vineyards. That experience made the analogy that much fuller. In Isaiah chapter 5 the writer uses this […]

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Blessings In Disguise

I am reposting the story that follows with permission from Miles Coleman. Miles’ dad Fred was my first-ever vocal coach and is my friend. This story is one that is truly inexplicable. I don’t usually use the word “miracle” simply because of how it has been abused and misunderstood. But there is no other acceptable […]

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