Samuel Wells
What Brexit is revealing
Intolerance won the vote, but St. Martin's witnesses to a different reality.
When the police come asking about your mentor's past
It's dangerous to stress that an abuser isn't all bad. It's also accurate.
When the church gets it wrong
The woman looked at me with fear, pain, and trust—all things that the church has instilled in its faithful all these centuries.
Seven possibilities for church
Here are some projections and assumptions I face in my current context—and responses that reflect what the church I serve is called to be.
Faith’s ghastly legacy
Christians fail to realize that the responsibility for rebellion against the faith lies invariably at their own door.
Europe’s Pentecost
Pentecost offers a vision for Europe: not one megastate or one system for everything, but a model of diversity as peace.
Bedrock story
The exiled people of Judah turned to their stories—and found the belief that God would save them as before. Centuries later, Christians did the same.
Questions at the door
One Sunday, I invited people to talk to us pastors about whatever troubled them. So after the service, I had no one to blame but myself.
Culture and the Death of God, by Terry Eagleton
In Terry Eagleton's compelling narrative, three plotlines run concurrently: a parade of ideas from the Enlightenment to the present, a sustained argument about the role of culture, and a burlesque apologetic for Christianity.
Rejects in the center
Perhaps normal people no longer assume that church is part of what it means to be normal. Or perhaps the idea of a normal center was flawed all along.
Walking toward the storm
Jesus went slowly, purposefully into the eye of the storm. Only through the storm would he find what he was looking for.
The power of being with: Jesus model for ministry
Imagine you're walking through a big city and you see a homeless person. You have several options.
Desired things
Be humble. Think of the imagination of God that brought creation into being; there could have been nothing.
Dementia and resurrection
Perhaps it's only when we let go of who and what our loved one was that we can receive who they are now.
Who’s Afraid of Relativism? by James K. A. Smith
James K. A. Smith suggests that the work of Richard Rorty can be a source of renewal—even though it makes many conservative Christians shrink in horror.
Business of the kingdom
The New Testament offers two compelling models for our relationship with money. When translated into a vision for a whole society, each is flawed.
Dressed for the moment
The collar says something to parishioner and stranger alike: while this doesn’t have to be the most important conversation of your life, it can be.