“God has chosen the people who are scorned and without importance in this world, that is to say, those who aren’t anything…” (My English translation of 1 Corinthian 1:28 from the Spanish translation Dios Habla Hoy).
This verse leapt off the page at me this morning. A recent community conversation about the make-up of our church echoed in my mind. It is a bilingual church-plant with both English and Spanish speaking groups of adults, and a horde of children from many continents. The topic was immigration reform, and its relevance to our church. Continue Reading →
Love is the impulse that allowed Jesus to migrate from his place of celestial power to take on the form of a third-class servant who rode an ass and withstood the insults of those who feared him. We must follow in His steps.
Silence is complicity and fear is its accomplice. May we replace silence with joyful proclamations of a blessed King who comes in the name of the Lord to infuse us with a fearless love that makes all of us cross borders of fear.Continue Reading →
Much like the related vices of pride and gossip, slander is a subtle sin. It is often committed without much forethought, and it is easier than more blatant iniquities to justify afterwards in our minds. Slander is seldom the topic of sermons, and many Christians—who could very readily explain to you what is meant […]Continue Reading →
Around my neck hangs a rosary of wooden beads given to me by my friend Andrés the night of his departure for Mexico last November. “Ni modo, Jason,” I remember him telling me just minutes before their truck pulled away from our parking lot one last time. “Ni modo:” roughly, “No way.” It was a phrase often repeated between us. The friendship I have enjoyed with Andrés has left me with an acute awareness of the disjunction between the personal realities of friendship and family and the legislation that often works against such realities. In our friendship we feel the tension between the deep reality of a friendship forged across cultural boundaries and the borders that temporarily impose physical distance between us.Continue Reading →
We have in our country right now 12 million people who are primarily poor, vulnerable, and outside the protection of the rule of law because they are here without legal status. These are people who often had to leave their homes, their cultures and familiar surroundings to go to another country to secure food and opportunity for their families. Leaving everything behind, the foreign-born are often the most vulnerable in our society, people who often are at the mercy of others.Continue Reading →
Guest Blog by Bob Ekblad I drive across the Skagit River, and head out across the fertile farmland of Fir Island on my way to visit don Feliciano, a Mixtec farmworker who pastors a Mixtec-speaking congregation called Iglesia de Jesucristo. I pass wintering snow geese and recently harvested potato fields, stopping where cars are parked […]Continue Reading →
Tony and Janina Wasilewski were like many other newlywed couples. After a big wedding surrounded by their friends and extended family, they shifted their focus to building a life together, and eventually they had a son, Brian. They lived in suburban Chicago, where they were active members of their Catholic parish. And, like many […]Continue Reading →
The United States is changing at an unprecedented pace. According to current predictions by the US Census Bureau, by 2050 the United States will have a majority of ethnic minorities, and as soon as 2031 white, non-Hispanic children will become a minority. Continue Reading →
Today, we’re bringing you the second part of an interview between Bill Hybels and Heather Larson of Willow Creek Community Church with Matthew Soerens, co-author of Welcoming the Stranger: Justice, Compassion & Truth in the Immigration Debate and a co-creator of g92.org. (The first part of the interview ran yesterday).
My work with World Relief is primarily focused on helping churches to think through the issue of immigration, putting together a biblical framework with the realities of immigration that the United States is currently facing. One of my favorite churches to work with in this regard has been Willow Creek Community […]Continue Reading →
