'Everything Can't Be Your Ministry.'

BOOK REVIEW

Shane Claiborne's Passionate Plea Against the Death Penalty
The author and activist puts a human face on the capital punishment debate.
Jen Pollock Michel
Uncle Tom's Cabin, the best-selling 19th-century novel, rehabilitated America's moral imagination. Author Harriet Beecher Stowe did so by humanizing a political issue. She not only gave slaveholding the villainous face of Simon Legree; she also made a Christian martyr of his slave. "If taking every drop of blood in this poor old body would save your precious soul," Uncle Tom said, "I'd give 'em freely, as the Lord gave his for me." The abolitionist polemic...continue reading >>

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Gleanings Shutting Down: America's Largest Distributor of Christian Products Send the Light Distribution was finally felled by Amazon Prime and Family Christian bankruptcy. Kate Shellnutt

People Died: Robertson McQuilkin, College President Praised for Alzheimer's Resignation Author of 'A Promise Kept' left Columbia Bible College short of retirement to care for his ailing wife. Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra

The Local Church Trillia Newbell: 'Everything Can't Be Your Ministry.' Where the boundlessly optimistic writer and speaker finds rest and hope in her fight against fear.

THE WORK OF OUR HANDS Showing Hospitality to Strangers and Spring Breakers Housekeeper Dave Collins finds purpose in treating hotel guests like friends. Chris Horst

Ponder Christian Soldiers Why I'm Not a Conscientious Objector I can't condemn war in the way my Anabaptist friends so quickly do. Matt Moorman

Sexuality What It's Like to Be Gay at Wheaton College The evangelical university has received negative press on LGBT matters. My own experience paints a different picture. Tyler Streckert

The Exchange Trends in Church Staffing: Executive and Campus Pastors Administrative tasks in growing churches need a focus person. Ed Stetzer

People Died: Jan Crouch, Cofounder of Trinity Broadcasting Network The 78-year-old started the world's largest religious cable network with her husband. Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra

Her.meneutics Fearfully and Autistically Made Acceptance means seeing autism as part of who my son is. Valerie Dunham, guest writer

The Local Church How to Talk about Church Health . . . Without Taking a Head Count We asked church leaders to answer the question "How is your church doing?" without using numbers. Here's what they said.

The Local Church Awkward Church Stock Photos: The Scary Cross Back! Back, I say! Luke T. Harrington