I would like to share a musical work by Handel that is not as well-known as his oratorio, Messiah, but arguably just as powerful and skillfully wrought. I’m referring to his Dettingen Te Deum, a musical setting of an early (3rd-4th c.) hymn of praise, similar to the Gloria text that we sing in church.…
“The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.” – Zephaniah 3:17 As this pandemic drags on, I’ve found myself drawn to unexpected places in my Bible reading. I’ve long loved…
In our Staying in Touch video this past week, Paige and I shared a little bit about how we are trusting God for his guidance in these new days. I want to share a bit more concretely how I’m personally attempting to do this while also offering some tools that may be helpful to you…
What does it mean to be an entrepreneur in the time of COVID-19? The question has come to mind lately as the New City Fellows* have been exploring what it means to be an entrepreneur as a follower of Christ. We’ve gotten to hear from Christian entrepreneurs like Holy Trinity’s Jesma and David Reynolds;…
While each day is feeling more and more like a scene out of the movie, Groundhog Day, navigating these days of unanticipated time with my immediate family has been endearing and unforgettable, peppered with some tense moments. Our college-aged girls moved out of their dorms for the semester and have filled their rooms with a lot of…
Community feels like one of those buzzworthy ideas that gets tossed around a lot in advertising, announcements and general conversations. But what is it and what does it really mean day in and day out? How do we experience it? Why is it important and why do we need it? Why is it emphasized at…
At nine o’clock every night, without fail, two men and two women from among the thirty members of a small, informal, Christian community in Huntingdonshire, England, gathered to read aloud antiphonally the entire Psalter, while the others retired for the night. The recitation lasted until about one o’clock in the morning. Every member of their…
A seasoned pastor was once asked this question: “If you were only able to have one book of the Bible, which would you choose?” He responded immediately saying, “That’s easy! The Book of Psalms because they encapsulate every emotion of life.” It’s easy to understand why the pastor would respond in this way. The…
We live in a day where it seems that every public issue becomes weaponized to score partisan points. The painful reality is that when these verbal bombs start flying, problems aren’t actually solved, and suffering is not relieved. Wounds are made worse rather than healed. In our cultural movement, the very act of having hard…
For most of my early life as a Christian, I did not really consider thanksgiving to be the stuff of prayer. Thanksgiving was more of a prelude to petition, which was where I thought the real action lay. When I prayed, I would quickly thank God for the day or for my food—good things to…