By Christopher L. Heuertz and Christine D. Pohl – “Go…and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you.” —Matthew 28:19-20 Jesus’ parting words to his followers ignited a missionary movement [...]

By Phillip C. Thrailkill Hope and Michael were lead characters in the once-popular TV show Thirtysomething. She was a Christian and he a Jew. As I was reading Philip Yancey’s The Jesus I Never Knew, I was reminded of an argument between the two characters during a December episode. Hope is on the attack, “Why [...]

The Los Angeles Times ran a photo depicting a bloodied corpse lying prone on the ground, a victim of the infamous drug cartel violence in Juárez, Mexico. The caption described Tierra Nueva, the area where the shooting occurred, as “a graffiti-stained neighborhood of dirt streets and concrete shacks in south Ciudad Juárez.”

But that’s only part of the story.

By N.T. Wright The whole New Testament assumes that Israel was chosen to be the people through whom the creator God would address and solve the problems of the whole world. Salvation is of the Jews. The early Christians believed that the one true God had been faithful to that promise and had brought salvation [...]

Whether on the property of a declining, derelict United Methodist church, or in an old Winn-Dixie, Jorge Acevedo is haunted by the red letter words of Jesus’ great commission to go. Pastor of a church that has sprung from one location to three in the past thirteen years, Acevedo insists that having multiple locations was [...]

In June 1975, I attended the West Michigan Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church for the first time. In two months, I would complete my final classes in seminary and take my first appointment as a deacon and a probationary member of the conference. Sometime during that week I met with Dr. Bob Smith, [...]

Many years ago, I became a rather unlikely fan of the sailing memoirs of the late William F. Buckley Jr. In his book Airborne, the dazzling wordsmith chronicled a 4,400 mile journey across the Atlantic Ocean with his son and five friends. One of the most fascinating aspects of the book is Chapter 9 where [...]