This Eastertide, our congregation is focusing on the mission that Jesus has given the church. As N.T. Wright so aptly put it, the task of the church is to “plant the flags of resurrection—new life, new communities, new churches, new faith, new hope, new practical love—in amongst the tired slogans of idolatrous modernity and destructive postmodernity.” So here’s the question: How do we know when we’re doing a good job? How can an individual Christian or a congregation figure out if they are succeeding at the task God has given us? For ...

So, is it? Is Facebook making us lonely? That’s the question Stephen Marche sought to answer in his conversation-generating article published by The Atlantic. Noting the fact that we are more networked but also more lonely than ever, Marche seeks to understand how social media is affecting our relationships. Our experience of loneliness has reached epidemic proportions. As a pastor, I hear more people say they struggle with loneliness than anything else. It is by far the biggest struggle in our community and, in my opinion, in Seattle. We ...

I closed my Easter sermon with a quote from NT Wright about the significance of the resurrection. Here is an extended excerpt from an another really great article he wrote several years ago. The message of the Resurrection is that this present world matters; that the problems and pains of this present world matter; that the living God has made a decisive bridgehead into this present world with his healing and all-conquering love; and that, in the name of this strong love, all the evils, all the injustices, and all the pains of the present ...

Did Jesus really die on the cross? It’s an important question. If Jesus didn’t die on the cross then he didn’t resurrect from the grave. And if Jesus didn’t resurrect from the grave, there is no sacrificial death that ends in victory. No forgiveness. No atonement. Nothing. As Paul said, if Jesus has not been raised, our faith is futile and we are still in our sins. So, did Jesus really die on the cross? According to Jewish custom, a hanged criminal was cursed by God and, therefore, should not remain hanging overnight lest he defile ...

One of the great things about the Bible is that it shows us many of the failures of God's people. In the pages of Scripture, we get to see Moses' sinful anger, Abraham's failure to protect Sarah (twice!), Peter's denial of Jesus, and David's abuse of power, just to name a few. This is encouraging because we know we are far from perfect. Seeing story after story of God's imperfect people inspires us to believe that God could use us in the world, even with our significant sins and struggles. But there is a danger here we must recognize. Very ...