Posts addressing issues within the public arena
The geography was made for the moment. Caesarea Philippi, located 25 miles north of the Sea of Galilee, was a place of unusual significance. No mere spot on the road, this city had been built up by Philip II, the son of Herod the Great. In honor of Caesar Augustus he called it Caesarea, and READ MORE
Pastor Matthew shared the following remarks with the New Hope Church community during the time of lament in the worship gathering on Sunday, May 31, 2020, less than a week after George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis. These past several days I’ve been in Tennessee because, as many of you know by now, my mom READ MORE
Here are my comments regarding the Ahmaud Arbery shooting and subsequent video, shared from the platform of New Hope Church on May 10, 2020: I have to take just a moment and acknowledge something that has dominated the headlines these recent days, and, if I may say, should have been dominating the headlines these recent READ MORE
When my white friends (and those who have chosen to no longer be my friends) wonder why I continue to talk about racial justice and issues of marginalization, and the privilege of white people sharing and even surrendering power and position to those with brown and black bodies, and I put it forward as the READ MORE
At a global ministry conference in Beirut, Lebanon, I was asked to share my reflections on the state of the American church and the implications of my observations for global ministry. Here is a survey of what I shared: First, evangelicalism, which is a rich theological construct, has been co-opted by American politics and is READ MORE
Some time ago I took a phone call from a regional newspaper regarding the nature of love. The conversation gave consideration to the contrast between biblical love and the so-called “love” that is portrayed in movies like 50 Shades of Grey. To that I simply pointed out that love is about giving, while 50 Shades “love” READ MORE
