Praying For The Weekend: Mindy Caliguire
October 28, 2011 12:00 AM
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All posts from “power”
Praying For The Weekend: Tim Keller
August 19, 2011 12:00 AM
As the summer comes to an end and a new ministry season launches in many congregation, I thought we should start a new segment on Out of Ur. So every Friday we will have a post about prayer called "Praying...
Jesus, Bombs, & Ice Cream
August 17, 2011 12:00 AM
I was in Baghdad in March 2003, where I lived as a Christian and as a peacemaker during the “shock-and-awe” bombing. I spent time with families, volunteered in hospitals, and learned to sing “Amazing Grace”… in Arabic. There is one...
Do Christianity & Capitalism Clash?
April 21, 2011 12:00 AM
A poll conducted by Public Religion Research Institute in partnership with Religion News Service was released this week that finds more Americans (44 percent) believe Christian values are at odds with capitalism than believe they are compatible (36 percent). However,...
Political Code Language
November 1, 2010 12:00 AM
There is a sinister trend gaining momentum in the days leading up to the mid-term elections. It is not initially obvious to many of us, but it has significant implications for the American church. The code language associated with this...
Jesus and the Health Care Bill
March 22, 2010 10:00 AM
This morning—the day after the U.S. House of Representatives passed the health-care measure—I feel a sense of gladness. I am glad that millions of Americans, many of them children, will have access to health insurance. I am glad that people...
Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream for the American Church
November 14, 2008 12:00 AM
by Skye Jethani Amazing. How else can you describe what happened last week when Barack Obama became the first African American elected President of the United States? However you voted, whatever your politics, the election reveals something about the progress...
John Ortberg's Lessons from the Election
November 11, 2008 12:00 AM
by John Ortberg My son has a bumper sticker on his car that reads: "I poke badgers with spoons." Its significance is not self-evident to everybody who reads it, so let me tell you the story. It comes from a...
The Hansen Report: The Day After
November 4, 2008 3:50 PM
The view of America from Manhattan was pretty bleak on the morning after November 2, 2004. New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, typically a levelheaded observer of world affairs, watched America become "two nations under God." "We don't just disagree...
The Hansen Report: Modern versus Postmodern Politics
October 2, 2008 2:33 PM
You can listen to every stump speech and read every position paper, but nothing compares to evaluating presidential candidates side-by-side during a debate. Their contrasting styles and views emerge in ways you hadn't noticed during the long primary season. The...
Out of Context: Efrem Smith
September 4, 2008 12:00 AM
"People cannot tell the difference between a conservative evangelical message and Rush Limbaugh, or a mainline Protestant message and Howard Dean. Because of the media, any news item related to a major social issue...is politicized in 24 hours. By...
Out of Context: Shane Claiborne
August 21, 2008 12:00 AM
"If there's anything I've learned from both conservatives and liberals, it's that you can have all the right political answers and still be mean. And nobody wants to listen to you if you're mean. One of the things we...
The Hansen Report: Warren, Obama, and McCain
August 19, 2008 8:35 AM
I'm not Rick Warren's biggest fan. Don't get me wrong; I admire his godly character and zeal to claim this world for Christ. But I could live without the hokey acronyms and, especially, his "felt needs" approach to evangelism....
Out of Context: Mark Dever
July 31, 2008 12:00 AM
"Too many Christians today are trying to improve on the gospel. The gospel is what it is: the Cross of Christ. Christians on both the political right and the left are downplaying the effects of the Fall, and instead...
From Useful Idiots to Political Misfits
May 14, 2008 12:00 AM
What is an "evangelical"? According to almost 80 prominent pastors, theologians, and activists, the word "evangelical" has become "a term that, in recent years, has often been used politically, culturally, socially - and even as a marketing demographic." The group...
John Ortberg on Religion AND Politics
May 6, 2008 12:00 AM
Anybody but me notice that this is an election year? I have loved politics since I was a kid; one of my first and favorite books was a little Cold War classic called Being an American Can Be Fun....
Book Review: Jesus for President (Part 3)
April 15, 2008 12:00 AM
Let's make a couple of assumptions about a church leader who reads Jesus for President. First, he or she actually finishes the book despite the occasional punch in the gut. Second, that this same church leader agrees (on some...
Book Review: Jesus for President (Part 2)
April 2, 2008 12:00 AM
A few months ago, while visiting a church out of state, I had a moment of crisis. Just before the sermon, the pastor stood to give the announcements. After wrapping up, he invited a young man in military uniform...
Book Review: Jesus for President (Part 1)
March 28, 2008 12:00 AM
We are seeing more and more that the church has fallen in love with the state and that this love affair is killing the church's imagination. The powerful benefits and temptations of running the world's largest superpower have bent...
The God Strategy
January 30, 2008 12:00 AM
With the presidential campaign in full swing, politics has been a more frequent issue on Out of Ur, but that does not fully account for our interest in the subject. This time around religion is playing a much more prominent...
Are You Ready for a Mormon President?
December 7, 2007 12:00 AM
From time to time this blog has addressed issues of faith and politics. In September, Isaac Canales shared his views about the church's response to illegal immigration. Brian McLaren has spoken here about the demise of the Religious Right. And...
The Gap between Rhetoric and Reality
September 21, 2007 12:00 AM
You may think writing a sermon every week is challenging work, but imagine writing speeches everyday for the leader of the free world. That was Michael Gerson's job for six years under President George W. Bush. Last night I attended...
Faith & Politics After the Religious Right (Part 2)
June 19, 2007 12:00 AM
Brian McLaren believes the Religious Right movement has lost credibility, but what will replace it? In part 1 of our interview McLaren called for a more mature Chrisitian engagement with politics, and warned about linking political ideology with our identity...
Faith & Politics after the Religious Right
June 14, 2007 12:00 AM
Last month the politically polarizing founder of the Moral Majority, Rev. Jerry Falwell, died. Falwell has been credited with mobilizing millions of evangelicals to engage the political process. The religious right, as the movement came to be called, has been...
Gordon MacDonald's 2008 Questions
March 6, 2007 12:00 AM
A bumper sticker I saw the other day asked, "Is it 2008 yet?" From the other stickers on the car, I surmised the political change the driver wanted - and soon. My reaction, after the chuckle, was the desire to...
The Body Politic
November 1, 2006 12:00 AM
Last night I received an automated phone call warning that the Democrat running for Congress in my district wants to take my house and give it to illegal immigrants. I've received similarly ridiculous calls about the Republican candidate - apparently...
Kingdom Confusion 2: The danger of believing in a Christian America
March 31, 2006 12:00 AM
When Gregory Boyd, pastor of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, preached about the danger of mingling the mission of the church with conservative politics he ignited passionate responses on both sides, and 1,000 people left the church. In...
Kingdom Confusion: Is the quest for political power destroying the church?
March 29, 2006 12:00 AM
Midterm elections are heating up across the country, and many analysts expect evangelical voters to remain a potent political force. But not everyone is encouraged by the church's ascent in recent years to political power. Gregory Boyd, senior pastor of...