Between the Trees

A Wal-mart employee was trampled to death earlier today by over-anxious shoppers. And a 28-year-old pregnant woman caught in the charge may have lost her baby.
“They are born into privilege. Into lives of parties and presents and pretty pink toes. They are the center of worlds, the apples of eyes. They are the feet stomping [...]

I found this post from Canadian Mike Todd over at the Emergent Village blog to be very helpful as we in the States celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday.
“As you give thanks today for what you have, I would respectfully ask you to consider carefully the words you use. The things we say reveal a lot about our [...]

Adam at Pomomusings recently asked his readers to share a Statement of Faith on Twitter - or, in other words, in 140 characters or less.
It’s a tad bit ridiculous, but a tad bit brilliant as well. Ridiculous because it caters to our generation’s ferret-on-crack attention span, but brilliant because it forces us to see the [...]

I’ve typed about seven different intros for this video and none do it justice. If you don’t know who Mike Leach is, you are missing out on one of the most unintentionally hilarious men in America. The brief version is he’s the head coach for the Texas Tech football team, he has a law degree [...]

I keep reading posts about how people, expecially young people, are leaving the church. The thing that worries me is how many evangelicals are going to respond to this. Our big programs and flashy churches aren’t working, we’ll think, so it’s time for bigger programs and flashier churches! Pastors dropping out of helicopters! Fireworks! Even [...]

In his book, Letters for My Children, Dan Taylor argues that there is a difference between story guilt and legal guilt. To illustrate he shares a story from his childhood when he, the popular boy in the class, chose the least attractive girl in their class to be his dance partner. He only did this, [...]

I have every intention of continuing this series that I introduced a few weeks ago, but life has been pretty overwhelming lately. Expect it soon. In the meantime, here’s an extremely helpful essay by Chris Wright on how to understand Old Testament prophecy. It’ll be particularly beneficial for those of you who (like me) grew [...]

John Frye is reimagining John 4 in which Jesus is a fundamentalist and an emergent thinker.
Best quotes: “Jesus replied, “You are a woman. Do not speak to me in public.”
“But, sir,…”
“Silence! Do not speak. You and your water pot and all you touch are unclean!”
And: “Jesus pushed back, “Woman, I am post-Jewish. I am post-Second [...]

“O God, you have prepared in peace the path I must follow today. Help me to walk straight on that path. If I speak, remove lies from my lips. If I am hungry, take away from me all complaint. If I have plenty, destroy pride in me. May I go through the day calling on [...]

Check this out, the money quote is italicized:
“It is often suggested that contemporary Christianity needs both Billy Graham’s interest in saving souls and the World Council of Churches’ interest in saving social structures. The problem with this patchwork solution is becoming increasingly evident. Billy Graham and World Council theologians have very different views of salvation.
Yet [...]