Where the heart is

I landed a few hours ago and am back in my apartment after a week in Pittsburgh. As I was thinking about my time away, something curious happened in my mind: I thought, “It was nice to be home for a week with family, but after so much traveling I’m glad to be home today.” I was at home last week in PA, and I’m home today in Chicago. Where, exactly, is my home? Home is a funny thing.

The truth is that some words, like home, hold worlds of meaning. Debie Thomas is rethinking the troubling word “evangelism.” Sam Wells explores varying expressions of “patience.” Rachell Mann ponders the implications of the church being the “body of Christ.” Our readers offer essays with many different takes on the word “disguise.”

In our video of the week, I chat with Century Voices columnist Julian DeShazier about clergy burnout and some of its root causes.

Email me: What place feels like home to you?

Jon Mathieu
[email protected]

Reclaiming the E word

“I’m fully on board with these objections to evangelism. But our earliest Christian ancestors lived and died in the hope of offering the whole world an invitation to radical, transformative, healing, empowering love.”

by Debie Thomas

True patience

“Bryan Stevenson’s witness recalled for me a phrase adopted by Eugene Peterson but originally coined by Friedrich Nietzsche, who spoke of patience as a ‘long obedience in the same direction.’”

The skin of Christ

“Bodies keep us honest: they tie us to fragility but also remind us of the glory of being alive.”

by Rachel Mann

In the Lectionary for February 19 (Transfiguration A)

When our beloved buildings are gone, what will endure is relationship.

by Kathryn Z. Johnston
 

[Video] Julian DeShazier on clergy burnout

Jon chats with Julian DeShazier—pastor, hip hop artist, and Voices columnist—about why we need more collaboration in our churches.

Disguise: Essays by readers

Our latest “Readers Write“ is on the word DISGUISE. With support from the Frederick Buechner Center.