Articles By: Larry Shallenberger

Larry is a pastor and author hailing from Erie, PA. He's the author of "Divine Intention" and "Lead the Way God Made You" (which was recently translated into Korean). Larry is a husband and father of three boys. He's on the board of www.thementoringproject.org. He's currently working on his fourth book and just crossed the halfway point of the first draft. If you're an aquisitions editor, you should toss Larry an email at larry.shallenberger @ gmail.com to chat.

Who Would Jesus Beat Down?

A few months ago I posted about my training in mixed martial arts and how I reconciled it with my faith. I still don’t have a rationale worked out. But the NYT ran an article about mixed martial arts “ministries” and offered what I thought was a fair critique. The training we offer...

February 8th, 2010 | Essays, Featured | Read More

Just Dust

My church is offering what might be an unusual parenting class. There is a psychology professor in town who goes to our church, and we’ve got her presenting a Sunday School class that emphasizes adolescent brain development. I suspect that this class is unusual for two reasons. First, most parents...

January 31st, 2010 | Featured, Meditations | Read More

The Woman with the Zodiac in Her Hair and a Dragon

I had, subconsciously, edited Satan out of the Nativity accounts. It was an honest oversight; I wasn’t intentionally revising my theology to be cool, hip, and twentieth century. There was that time I was at the wrong end of an exorcism. And the Evangelical subculture had wore me out by promoting Satan...

November 29th, 2009 | Meditations | Read More

Our Eyes Are at Fault, That is All

Paul had claimed he learned to be content in every situation. As Acts closes Paul shows us that the freedom of a Christ Follower isn’t measured by the absence of chains or prisons, but by one’s capacity to love God and humanity in the face of all resistance. By reasonable human standards Paul wasn’t...

November 22nd, 2009 | Meditations | Read More

What’s Christmas Without a Good Fight?

I know. You still haven’t thrown out that fruit fly-infested jack-o-lantern and I’m offering you another Christmas meditation. By the time Black Friday rolls around you’ll wanting to weave the shopping flyers into a rope with which to hang either yourself or me. It won’t matter. Please...

November 7th, 2009 | Featured, Meditations | Read More

Come See the Violence Inherent in the System

I’m working on a book about Christmas and I’ve been wrestling with the ugliness of what Biblical scholars call the Slaughter of the Innocents. I hate that Jesus came to Earth in a way that caused countless infants and children to be murdered by King Herod. In fact, I struggle with the Bible...

October 25th, 2009 | Featured, Meditations | Read More

Christ Plays in 10,001 places

Yesterday was one of those “take one for the team” days. I was up at 4:30 AM, at the church office by 6 AM, and on my way home by 1:30 PM. My wife sings in a local acoustic trio and was up for two awards (Female Vocalist and Acoustic Band) in the Rock Erie Music Awards, a local awards...

October 18th, 2009 | Featured, Meditations | Read More

Real and Imagined Selves

I walked into the Avalon Ball Room and looked around for a familiar face. Aaron and Kelly had their wedding reception here, but you wouldn’t know it. Tonight there was no band, wedding cake, or black-tied caterers serving plates of chicken. Thick armed men with tattoos and plastic cups of beer milled...

October 11th, 2009 | Featured, Meditations | Read More

Suffering Well as a Proof of God

I doubt the existence of God from time to time. These doubts sometimes last for just a moment, and other times they linger long enough for me to categorize them into one of two varieties: 1) I doubt there is a God when I’m witness to good people suffering evil. 2) I doubt God when I fail to see...

September 20th, 2009 | Meditations | Read More

Mediations: Isaiah 4

The family and I just returned from a quick tour of Amy’s side of the family in Michigan. We had a great time but logged in too many highway miles, at too many ribs, and consumed a little too much coffee on the way back to Pennsylvania to stay awake. I remembered that this was my week to supply...

June 28th, 2009 | Meditations | Read More