Occasionally at a social gathering, I am asked, “What is your role at the Christian Century?” While I have some more technically accurate ways of answering, I sometimes find myself saying a version of: “I’m friends with people who read our magazine.” Again, this is not the most correct answer, but it captures what I love about this job. One reader invited me and my wife to see their cabin! One showed up a few times at the faith community I lead. One sends me near-weekly emails about epic ministry adventures in Alaska.
This is more than just a fun part of the job—it’s a humbling privilege, because many of you trust me with part of your stories. Stories of joy, of grief, of hope that lives through struggle. We have some new articles that share these same types of human stories. Heidi Neumark describes the changes in a congregant after she transitioned to her true gender. Isaac Villegas shares about acts of life-giving gardening inside a prison. Fictional stories also express the human experience—as in Michelle Hunevan’s comedy about a church’s pastoral search committee.
The video of the week is a chat with Century Voices columnist Debie Thomas about evangelism and whether we can reclaim that word.
Email me: What is one of your favorite stories from your life?
“On the luminous mountaintop, Jesus crossed a threshold between heaven and earth to show us his true identity, and hasn’t Larissa crossed a threshold as well, to reveal her true self?”
“He wanted something beautiful, he told me, something irrepressibly alive. So he transformed a piece of his everyday existence into a sign for life beyond captivity—plants and flowers plotting a transfiguration.”
Jon chats with Century columnist Debie Thomas about progressive Christians and the dirty word evangelism—and some of her thoughts on the He Gets Us commercials.
