Fresh faith is more a meaningful way of loving and trying to follow Jesus. It begins with a reevaluation of the faith of our childhood or a questioning of the practices of the institutionalized church. It can be a painful process, but the end result is something very personal, very real, and very meaningful, which makes it worth it.
Saw this somewhere and decided to take the challenge. Jesus. Christianity is based on Jesus, not a church or a prescribed set of beliefs. Love. Christianity is based on love, loving God, loving others (especially those we do not understand), and loving ourselves (in a healthy, non-arrogant sort of way,… Continue reading
Easter is about life. It’s about the rebirth of Spring and Christ’s resurrection culminating in ultimate victory over sin, Satan, and the last enemy, death. We have been celebrating this for a couple of millennia, and we should. But there is one more slice of life that deserves celebrating…this life,… Continue reading
I have had a crisis of faith. Oh, I haven’t gone completely heathen, but there have been drastic changes about how I believe and express my faith. Losing some of the simplistic, clear beliefs that I embraced for most of my life is a kind of loss that has been… Continue reading
It’s demoralizing when you take a step in good faith only to find out that it was a mistake and then realize that we need to change your route. That’s where hundreds of thousands of people have found themselves in relationship to their faith and the institutional church. So, I… Continue reading
The Super Bowl for Christians Only every year your team wins A big party with lavish religious productions A happy time with colorful eggs oddly laid by rabbits A celebration of new clothes and new life An empty cross and an empty tomb Hope. Life. Victory. Only this year is… Continue reading
Brian Zahnd is a pastor in my hometown of St. Joseph, Missouri, and he is about the same age as me. In his newest book, Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God, Brian takes on some issues that have been mysterious and troubling for me, and countless others. The… Continue reading
For about thirty years, I have thought something was wrong with the way we practice Christianity. At first, I thought the church’s methods were out of date. They were, but that was not the problem. Then, I thought the way we did church was sad proof that we didn’t… Continue reading
I have read and written so much about matters of faith for so many years that I finally got tired of it. I felt like that’s pretty much all I have to say on the topic. In the process, I fell in love with writing and began writing about other… Continue reading
What is the most important thing in life? Is it how you treat others? Is it how well you love people? Is it living life to its fullest? Is it being true to yourself? Is it having no regrets? Is it preparing for the next life? Is it what you… Continue reading
How do you experience community, if you don’t go to church? That’s one of the questions I am asking myself as I am trying to figure out what I believe at this point in my life; and I have an answer: like everyone else. I enjoy people and connect with… Continue reading
Happy Valentine’s Day! This is a good day for me ask myself an important question. Is it an over simplification to sum up living life in way of Jesus with the word, “love”? My beliefs and faith practices have undergone such a dramatic change over the last few years that… Continue reading
Free Range Faith is a companion memoir for people who have left the institutional church, but not the faith. Glenn Hager addresses the question, “Is there a more real and meaningful way to try to follow Jesus and express your faith without having to deal with all of the baggage… Continue reading
Interested in Jesus, but not the church? Used to go, but not anymore? Find the whole church scene irrelevant? You may be one of the 38 million individuals who stopped attending church in the last decade in The U.S. With honesty and a wry wit, Glenn Hager tells his story… Continue reading
Faith is something that you are not supposed to mess with. It’s fixed. Its propositions are anchored in history. You accept them and you’re “in.” Reject them and you’re “out.” Question them and you’re a problem. How those things are understood have undergone some changes through the centuries. Some faiths… Continue reading
A lot of people are going to tell you that you’re nuts for trying to live out a life of faith away from the church and religious institutions. A lot of people are wrong. Churches, like people, come in all shapes and sizes. Some are so in love with their… Continue reading
“The blue” has a couple of things going for it. In the blue, you are free from the confines of the institutional ways of expressing your faith. You are free from outsourcing your faith expression to an organization. How you deal with that now is up to you. You are… Continue reading
I wondered for a long time how to summarize one hundred and eighty-two pages into a physical image. I finally got a picture in my mind that the cover artist for my first book, An Irreligious Faith, captured beautifully. On the cover is a birdcage that strangely reminds you… Continue reading
It’s tidy to reduce our faith to an intellectual exercise of systematic theology and positions on various topics. You can make a checklist to see if someone is right or wrong. It’s tidy to categorize the losers who get it wrong. You’re right, they’re wrong! Done. But love is always… Continue reading
For years I have wondered what faith in Jesus looks like, not faith in the church, or faith in Bible, or faith in doctrine, or faith in ritual, but faith in Jesus. This thing called Christianity has played fast and loose with faith in Jesus for a long, long time.… Continue reading
“Responsibility” is a heavy-sounding word. But assuming personal responsibility is about freedom (a lighter-sounding word.) When you have freedom, you get responsibility along with it. If no one is mandating what to do, you need to figure it out for yourself. You need to be responsible with your freedom. You… Continue reading
What does that look like when you chisel away all of the centuries of extraneous stuff, and it’s just you and Jesus in real life? If you jettison the hierarchy, the cathedrals, the massive church campuses, the official clergy, the budgets, the billions of dollars, the stereotypes, the expectations, the… Continue reading
Have you ever taken a bite out of a perfectly ripened peach that was hanging from a tree jut a short time ago? There is a certain stance you need to assume when eating a good peach, so the juice doesn’t drip all over you, but it may still run… Continue reading
I am fascinated by the myriad of ways that people express their faith within the parameters of a particular religion. In my journey of the last several years, I have connected with so many people who have gown weary of how they have been practicing their religion. Hence, the conversation… Continue reading
Easter is Super Bowl Sunday for Christians; only there is no question about who wins. Easter gives us bragging rights. “The leader of our religion is the only one who didn’t stay dead. He’s a live!” And there are plenty of implications that flow from that fact. Jesus is God.… Continue reading
Giving money and possessions to others is a sign that our heart is in the right place. Paying our bills is good, too, and an important responsibility. When we are trying to sort out our finances, that’s the obvious place to start. Maybe, we can lower our bills. Also, good.… Continue reading
Churches didn’t just come up with the offering idea, as a way to keep things going. The idea of religious donations has a long history. Tithing, or giving one tenth of your income is a very ancient practice, even predating the Mosaic Law. Abraham tithed to the mysterious King Melchizedek,… Continue reading
Back in the day, this question would have seemed absurd to me, but not anymore. Millions of people are indeed holding onto their faith without being a part of the church, more all the time. But what does it look like when we don’t outsource our spiritual expression to an… Continue reading
So, what does this “free range believer,” this “being the church, rather than going to church” look like? How can it have a relational aspect? You are free to focus on the people in your world by taking time to notice them, engaging with them whenever you can, loving them unconditionally,… Continue reading
How do you live a life of faith without the help of the church? It is a relevant question for the thirty-eight million people who have dropped out of church in the last decade, part of a total of 156 million unchurched Americans. Incidentally, most all of them have… Continue reading
This is the end of the chapter in my new book (the one I am writing now) on nurturing your soul. Spiritual formation requires something of us. It requires discipline. In fact, ongoing practices that help nurture spiritual formation are called disciplines. They are things you do intentionally and repeatedly that… Continue reading
Conventional church leadership wisdom says, “Build the church.” That means to build the organization by increasing attendance, involvement, income, and influence. The discipleship process got morphed into teaching doctrines and trying to turn attendees into good church members, training newcomers to use their talents and gifts to sustain and expand… Continue reading
A disciple is a learner, follower, student, or apprentice. Jesus had seventy that he sent out on a mission trip in Luke 10 and, famously, there were twelve who were his closest associates who traveled with him for over three years. Peter, James, and John seemed have been part of… Continue reading
Typically, it goes something like this, only with a few more details. Well, good morning! I feel kind of scrambled today. My head is full of thoughts of things that need to be done and thoughts that worry me. I wonder just where those dark thoughts come from and how… Continue reading
Short Answer Ain’t gonna happen! That’s my initial response to this month’s synchroblog topic, healing divisions in the church. People like believing they are right. Then they can look down the other poor souls who don’t measure up, and feel very righteous about it. That sums up a big part… Continue reading
The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) is, perhaps, the best known passage on prayer. Rabbi’s had their own prayers that were embraced by their followers. This is Jesus’. Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as… Continue reading
Leaving the institutional church opens up a world of opportunity for people who are serious about expressing their faith. We get to choose where, when, and how we worship. Will we worship God as we walk along a nature trail in solitude? Will we worship him in a crowded festival, full of… Continue reading
Image by SakuriRainne. Creative Commons. We should become opportunistic worshippers, recognizing God wherever we find him. If we approach life like that, he will surprise us with a touch of the divine in weird and unlikely places. I am a party worshipper. Yes, partying has been equated with binge drinking and… Continue reading
There are two sides to worship, the mystical and spiritual side, that stirs up feelings of awe and reverence and the physical, action-oriented side. Worship is anchored in spirit and truth, but ultimately our worship is revealed in the way we live. That’s what we learned from the Scriptures, and… Continue reading
Image by Franco Folini, Creative Commons I came to realize, if I couldn’t take care of myself, I couldn’t help anyone else. Soul care is perhaps our primary responsibility and renewing our soul is as “holy” as serving a homeless person. Our personal wellbeing and our ability to contribute to the… Continue reading
For most of my life I have been obsessed with trying to get things right. I have been hyper-sensitive to the teachings of the Evangelicalism which constantly nagged me about what a good Christian does and does not do. That list is a web of expectations nearly as involved as… Continue reading
It is infinitely important to have a good editor. She has the same kind of power as a record producer who takes a good song and turns it into a great record (MP3) that is a beautiful piece of artistic expression that connects with people on an emotional level. In… Continue reading
Most of Jesus’ miracles were healings. He healed all manner of people, all different ways, from simply speaking the words, to a touch of his robe, to forgiving sins, to applying mud to blind eyes. He noticed those who were ignored, the outcasts, the beggars, and those who were simply… Continue reading
.Penelope loved life and lived it at full throttle. She admired her daddy, emulating his mischievous little grin and his love of ornery escapades. There was an effervescence about her that, at times, just had to bubble over like a well-shaken bottle of Coke. After 9th grade gym class, her… Continue reading
I have seen him many times and I have discovered that he is full of surprises and is very irreligious. I saw him when I looked out at Lake Michigan yesterday from the bluff in Port Washington, Wisconsin as the sun was illuminating our massive blue inland ocean. I saw… Continue reading
During those transitional years, I had a very difficult time figuring out how to do evangelism. Some of the things I have been taught seemed like they cheapened the message by making evangelism all about information and presentation. It seems like there was very little consideration for the person, my… Continue reading
When I was a pastor, the Sunday morning service was the thing. We brainstormed, planned, practiced, studied, rehearsed, and critiqued, trying to get it just right. It consumed huge blocks of time every week. We wanted to create an impression and elicit a specific response. It was theater. There are parts… Continue reading
At one of the churches we attended, the pastoral staff frequently attended conferences. That resulted in a church that flowed on the tides of the latest trends espoused by the mega-churches and their gurus. This church was forever tweaking their mission statement, ministry names, and structures. At the newcomers’ lunches… Continue reading
Almost all of the conferences I went to as a pastor were about building the church, increasing attendance, offerings, and participation in ministries. We got it wrong! This is the overarching principle for all the shifts that I mentioned so far. It strikes at the basic purpose of the church.… Continue reading
At one point during a community festival of kindness event, I walked to the upper bleachers of the community center and looked down on all that was happening. Families were receiving free groceries, health screenings were happening, a whole array of agencies were on hand, along with hundreds of volunteers… Continue reading
It must have been nearly ten years ago when Aaron, the Student Community Pastor at the church I was attending was sitting in my car in front of the church building. We had just finished going out for lunch and had our usual on-going conversation about the sins of the… Continue reading
