Rejoice! Here at the ARUSA blog, we’ve done a series or two on waiting, because our two seasons of waiting – Lent and Advent – are important parts of the Christian year. They call us inward, to reflect on the processes of the earth and our roles within them. However, we haven’t yet done a …
Redemption
Preparing for Peace
by Robert Campbell It’s my job to get the boxes out of the garage. That’s the unofficial beginning of our Christmas preparations. Usually, I will put the lights on the tree before we add the ornaments together. The children work at putting the garlands above the doorways and the mama begins one …
In the Fullness of Time
As fall turns to winter, the earth goes to sleep. Trees lose their leaves, annuals die, and perennials lay dormant. Last season’s leaf litter covers the bare patches of soil in the garden bed, and we wait for spring to return. Still, under the ice and snow and bitter cold, the ground is teeming …
Waiting in Hope
I’ve been thinking a lot this week about time, and the different ways it exists. First, there is the rather arbitrary way that we measure time, independent of the natural world: things happen on the first or last day of the month, or every two weeks, or the second Tuesday of November. These …
Hope for God’s Groaning World
By Ben Lowe, Evangelical Environmental Network and Young Evangelicals for Climate Action One of my favorite places in all of America is the St. Lucie River in South Florida. The St. Lucie is a wide tidal river connected to the Indian River Lagoon — the most biodiverse estuary system in the United …
Plastic Christianity
by Tom Rowley, A Rocha USA Executive Director From drink bottles to styrofoam cups to those clamshells that ironically protect organic fruits at Costco, plastic—the material so famously and presciently proclaimed as the “future” to Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate—is taking over. Consider the …
Small Beginnings
By Tom Rowley, A Rocha USA Executive Director Two weeks ago, I spent the day with a dozen other men—nine black, three white—discussing racism, black men and the Church. Appreciative as I was for the invitation by Leroy Barber and Kilns College, I was a bit hesitant. Privileged by society because …
Tears for Trout
By Tom Rowley, A Rocha USA Executive Director Embarrassing as it is to admit: I cry a lot. Raised in Texas in a time and culture where men did not shed tears, not publicly, I nonetheless find myself shedding more and more of them. Some are tears of joy. Those welling up now as I listen to …
Hopey New Year
By Tom Rowley, A Rocha USA Executive Director As new year resolve fades and resolutions fail, I offer a more hope-filled alternative: keep your eyes on Jesus. In a world where people are dying, the climate is changing and species are going extinct—a world that is in biblical terms utterly …
Climate Change: Who Speaks for Christianity?
By John Elwood The global Christian church is by far the world’s largest religious family. Among its various denominations, it accounts for more than 31 percent of the earth’s population – almost one out of every three people in the world. For the casual observer, it’s hard to know exactly …
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