After years holding onto a faith that was rigid, static, even immovable, it is so refreshing to hold beliefs and practices with open hands. The idea of open, changing faith is what makes me so grateful both for my own post-evangelical journey and for the thoughtful words I find in the Century. I know this is true for many of you; a few weeks ago I asked about changes in your faith, and your many responses were inspiring.
This week’s content highlights such an orientation toward revisiting, revising, reforming, and reimagining. Jonathan Tran asks us to reconsider our disinterest in heaven. Andi Lloyd connects the land’s mourning in Hosea to our current climate crisis. (You can share your thoughts on this piece in yesterday’s post in our Facebook discussion group.) Alejandra Oliva introduces us to non-traditional ministry from the ’60s jazz scene with a piece about the Night Pastor.
Our video of the week is a throwback (all the way back to the early days of our YouTube channel two months ago). It’s a fun chat I had with retired pastor Tom Steagald about preaching funeral sermons.
Email me: What belief have you revisited and revised in your faith journey?
“Heaven seems to have dropped off the Christian radar, even in the evangelical world I still largely inhabit. It now feels more like a distant memory than a future hope.”
“The land’s mourning speaks simultaneously of a vision of the world as it ought to be—that beautiful fabric—and the truth of the world as it is: too much injustice and too little love fraying the threads that hold us all.”
“The Night Pastor is not just a cool name for a bandleader but an actual job title, held by Robert Owen for several years as part of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago.”
“No, Matthew’s gospel doesn’t mention me
when I was in that boat, wrestling that sail.
But someone had to do it . . .”
poem by Steven Peterson
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