Some time ago I found myself in Denver for a conference. Knowing absolutely nobody, I set myself down in an open chair at a session, next to this guy who was decked out to the nines in punk uniform. Leather, studs, chains, tattoos, piercings, hair dye, mohawk—he jangled whenever he shifted in his seat....

You might have thought that the British would have stopped colonizing the United States sometime before 1776, when fledgling American nationalists declared their independence—or at least by 1815, when the War of 1812 ended and U.S. control of the land was firmly established. But I learned recently...

I’ll be the first to admit that, all things considered, I prefer comfort to discomfort, security to insecurity. I’m not sure, however, that these are reasonable expectations, or even aspirations, for a person of faith. One of the more resonant ideas I came across while reading Jean Vanier’s...

John Wesley is said to have employed four tools in his theological work, which have come to be called the Wesleyan Quadrilateral: Scripture, Reason, Tradition, Experience. Scripture, according to Wesley, is the first and final authority in any such quest for wisdom. The other three are equal seconds...

I occasionally wonder about the damage that can be done by the careless appeal to “community.” I was, for a while, a member of a church that defined itself by community, and which defined community as “people doing life together.” This was what true friendship was meant to be: you could call...

I’m a middle child, which is awful enough, I suppose. But in addition to being neither youngest nor oldest, with all the benefits that accrue to each, I’m also the only one of my parents’ children who never took a debate class. As a result, growing up I lost pretty much every argument. And as an...

Lately I’ve been accused, more than once, of being an introvert. Not that there’s anything wrong with that—some of my best friends are introverts. My wife is an introvert. I fully support the rights of introverts. It’s just that I’m not an introvert. I take those tests—you know the ones I’m...

“Empathy.” That’s what she was looking for. It was the first night of our church small group, and I had asked what people wanted out of the experience. Most of the responses were predictable, but this one stopped the conversation in its tracks. Being good, robust evangelicals, we immediately started...