For the Love of the Church

Life is beautiful, but it is not always pretty. There is real goodness in life, real meaning and real joy, even though it is often wrapped in difficulty, frustration, and pain. The same is true of the church. The church is beautiful. It simply is not

Most people think they know what the church is, until they try to define it. Is the church a building, a Sunday service, a denomination, a ministry organization, or simply a group of Christians gathering in someone’s living room? In everyday language, the

When most people hear the word diversity, their minds go straight to visible differences. Skin color. Language. Culture. Age. Socioeconomic background. Those are real forms of diversity, and they matter. But the church’s diversity is deeper than surface

One of the strange things about making a podcast is realizing you’ve now done the thing more than once. By episode three, there’s a small sense of surprise that you’re still here, still recording, and somehow people are still listening. You picture a

The language of “family” is one of the first things people notice when they step into a church. They hear believers call each other “brother” and “sister,” and if they did not grow up around church life, it can feel strange, even suspicious. That reaction

Even the title feels like it’s trying to be funny and painfully honest at the same time. And honestly, that is the right tone. If we cannot admit the church is imperfect, we are not living in the real world. We are living in a religious fantasy where

“How do we know Caleb is alive?” “What if he’s just Chad GPT?” What if Harvey the imaginary rabbit shows up like, “Gentlemen, I heard you were discussing reality.” But honestly, that opening joke is doing real work. Because the point is this: in a world

When people talk about a church “thriving,” they almost always mean one thing, size. Bigger buildings, fuller parking lots, more staff, more programs, and more visible activity have become the unspoken standard for evaluating health. In that environment,