I always talk about following Jesus as the way to life, and I believe that deep down in my bones. I also know deep down in those same bones that the way to this life often starts with death – as annoying as that can be. The last couple of years of my life
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I was looking at the lineup of a recent church conference and did a double take. I couldn’t help notice that of the 30 or so presenters, all but 2 were men. All of the men were white. This isn’t the only conference that has the same ratio, in fact, most do. Do you think this a problem?
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It has been an exciting year for the New Leaf Network. The podcast has flourished, the blog launched and we had some great events. Check out our top blog posts and podcast episodes of 2017.
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At a bible camp in 1978, I gave my heart to Jesus. It wasn’t because I learned how good he was or actually, anything about God. I just didn’t want to go to hell. I was taught a hyper-Arminian view of God in those days. This view is summarized by this: if you sin and suddenly die, you will go straight to hell. So my view of God
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One of the common things that I hear when people talk to me about women being preachers, particularly among those new to the idea, is the statement: “I’ve never seen it.” Sometimes this is a statement meant to express a simple lack of experience, often said with regret. Other times it is meant to
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For years, while my children were growing up, I had a tradition of sitting down, sometime over Christmas, and reading to them from William Kurelek’s, A Northern Nativity: Christmas Dreams of a Prairie Boy (1976). I didn’t grow up on the prairies but have lived there
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There are lots of ways of thinking about how science relates to theology. Is it a conflict, a competition, a dialogue, a discussion, an engagement, or a partnership? Here is how I think of it: Imagine you are looking at a map of a city. What do you see?
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The song “Linus and Lucy” made it’s television debut in 1965 as part of A Charlie Brown Christmas. Since then, the song has become one of the most recognizable tunes in the lexicon of popular jazz music and is now synonymous with Charles Schulz’s beloved Peanuts characters. People may recognize the religious significance of the Charlie Brown Christmas Special
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I’m in my second year of church planting, and I have a 6-week old baby. I’m taking a short maternity leave, and this time away from work for a few months has been a gift, but it’s swiftly coming to an end. I’m simultaneously itching to get back to the daily
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