One summer home from seminary, working for a church, I was compelled against my will to be a counselor for the church’s week-long junior high camp. I take it on faith that God has love for middle-schoolers.

My most vivid memory was the Wednesday night dance on the beach. A big cookout and ice cream sundae extravaganza, followed by an imported dance floor laid out on the sand, with a DJ, and….hayrides on a horse-drawn wagon. Sitting on the periphery were six or so Amish men and women, in traditional drab attire, who owned the team of horses pulling the haywagon. I sat down next to one of the men, who appeared to be 50-ish with a chin curtain beard. We gazed at the semi-lascivious spectacle on the dance floor. I finally asked, “What do you think of this?” They smiled at me and said it wasn’t their way.

I asked if they were from Pennsylvania. “No, from Ohio.” Naïve twit that I am, I asked if they drove the horse team down here all the way. I thought this would be quite an ordeal and cause traffic problems even on backroads. “No, we took a truck.” Huh. “But I thought you didn’t believe in using automobiles.” “We don’t.” More silence. “Uh…if you don’t believe in using automobiles then how did you come down here on a truck with your horses?” “Oh, we can ride in cars, we just can’t drive them.” “It’s immoral to drive them but moral to ride in them?” I asked with incredulity all over my face. “Yes,” came the of-course answer.Read more

The title of this piece brings together two competing ideologies about sex. Sex and the City is of course HBO’s long running show about the erotic life of Sarah Jessica Parker and her thirty-something friends in Gotham City. In that show you find the culture’s attitudes about sex front and center. The City of God, on the other hand, is St. Augustine’s 4^th Century book about how Christians are to live in and yet be distinct from the world, sexually and otherwise.

As Christians, how are we to think about sex? How do we get from Sex and the City to The City of God? How do we get from I Am Charlotte Simmons to The Bible?

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Chuck Colson's Breakpoint ministry has launched a new blog with multiple voices called "The Point".  Catherine Claire, who has many fans among CGO readers, is one of the regular writers for The Point. 

They've been up for a week and they're diving into interesting topics.  One of note: Catherine Claire's piece on Consumer Culture vs. Creative Culture.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer knew the importance of Christians investing in each other’s lives. When done right, it is never a shallow exchange. It is, instead, a powerful and loving ministry wherein two people relate, always trusting that they need to be encouraged and challenged by the Word of God. Bonhoeffer put it this way, in his classic little book, Life Together: 

God has put this Word into the mouth of men in order that it may be communicated to other men. When one person is struck by the Word, he speaks it to others. God has willed that we should seek and find His living Word in the witness of a brother, in the mouth of a man. Therefore, the Christian needs another Christian who speaks God’s Word to him. He needs him again and again when he becomes uncertain and discouraged, for by himself he cannot help himself without belying the truth. He needs his brother man as a bearer and proclaimer of the divine word of salvation. He needs his brother solely because of Jesus Christ. The Christ in his own heart is weaker than the Christ in the word of his brother; his own hear is uncertain, his brother’s is sure [pg. 23].

 Such a statement should lead a Christian, today, to ask, “Do I have such a relationship with another believer? Do I allow someone else to proclaim that 'divine word of salvation' to me?” To put it another way, do we have friends who exhort us so that we will not, as the author of Hebrews wrote, “be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin”? Living the Christian life without friends who speak into our lives this way is unbiblical—it is also lonely. Read more

Mike Sense has culled through the Forbes 200 Largest Charities database in his research on what CEOs of Christian charities receive in compensation.

These tax-exempt organizations are supported by donations. I am highlighting in bold those who make less than $100k per year.Read more

When Glenn Lucke launched this blog over a year ago and asked if I'd be a part of it, he told me the theme that we'd be hitting from various angles would be learning and living the Christian story.Read more