Spiritual bypassing occurs when faith enables the avoidance of hard issues. While it often appears in the spiritual but not religious realm, spiritual bypassing undergirds contemporary Christian theology. Learning this, and adapting my faith accordingly, significantly changed my life. Welcome to 50-for-50. This post is part of a collection of 50 things I’m doing involving …
On a quiet evening thirty-something years ago, my family gathered in the living room and asked that oh so common question, “What should we watch?” My dad pulled out either the TV listings from the newspaper or a paperback copy of TV Guide and began mentioning things he thought might interest my mom, brother, and …
Good morning. So for those of you who don’t know me obviously my name is Joe. Part of the reason I’m standing here right now is that I’m a recovering Lutheran pastor. And I mean that in a few different ways. Recovering, Lutheran, Pastor In one sense there’s a part of me that is still …
Whether I express it here or through my work over at Abundance Reconstructed, I believe, by and large, the Western Church gets the Bible wrong. Moreover, because we misunderstand the overarching story, we end up applying the message incorrectly. Now, I do not believe there is some conspiracy theory going on and that these errors …
On Sunday, January 24, 2021 I preached on the right way to be hated at The Sanctuary in Denver, CO. The essay on love and power that shaped my thinking is the second chapter of Henri Nouwen’s book, Intimacy.