Blog Post

Here is one question that won't leave me alone: How can we relate to one another as brothers and sisters in Christ, and our neighbors in love, in our sharply polarized cultural moment? In terms of coming to understand polarization, I've found Charles Taylor to be helpful in A Secular Age. He unpacks many different levels of what constitutes "identity" in our cultural moment. Taylor recently joined my former professor Miroslav Volf for a podcast interview to discuss the problem of "entrenched tribal factions" within our broader political culture. But the question, as it relates to the church, is even more subtle. The church is not a democracy, but a people who find their life in the Head, Jesus Christ, and have been incorporated into God's household. This forces us to grapple with our identity differently. But often, we have been shaped by our culture to approach others in the church...

07 October, 2021

I'm thrilled to announce that my next book, The End of the Christian Life: How Embracing Our Mortality Frees Us to Truly Live, is available for pre-order! You can check out the trailer for the book below, along with a few of the endorsements. In addition, for those subscribed to my mailing list, you are invited to apply for the Launch Team – able access to a digital copy of the book in the first week of August! Details are available through this link, and applications need to be received in the next few days. I often ask seminary graduates about their biggest challenge in ministry which involves the intersection of theology and practice. The most common response? Death and dying. Advising families on medical decisions, funerals, comforting parents who have lost a child – the examples are many. In light of this, and some of my own experience as a...

31 July, 2020

After a decade in the works, my book on the Lord's Supper and the gospel is finally out! It's available here at Amazon, and other booksellers as well. The book, Remembrance, Communion, and Hope makes the case for how a renewed theology and practice of the Lord's Supper can lead to a deeper embrace of the gospel itself. Thus, it's not just a book about the particulars of "what the bread means," or "how Christ is present" at the meal. Through the sign-action of the Supper, the book probes the character of the biblical drama of salvation. Here is one aspect of that drama of salvation that is often missed today: Jesus Christ is our true spouse. God has entered into covenant with his people, which both the Old and New Testaments compare to marriage. Specifically in the New Testament, we are betrothed to Christ -- as a people, and as individuals. Our...

26 February, 2018

The new book, Remembrance, Communion, and Hope, will be out in a few weeks! Here's a meditation from the book on the durable, eternal love that we're incorporated into in the Christian life and worship: "As mind-bending as it may seem, when the Spirit incorporates us into the loving communion of Jesus the Son, we are incorporated into a durable, eternal love that is older than creation itself. This is a love that does not move to and fro like the updating of one’s 'relationship status' on Facebook; it is not a product of Valentine’s Day swooning. This eternal love echoes through the ages in the praise the creation itself sings to the Creator. 'Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it. Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them; let all the trees of the forest sing for joy.' (Ps. 96:11–12)  In the sign-act of the Supper, God...

11 January, 2018