Unseasonal Condemnation
Editor Brian Kaylor reflects on Christmas (yes, he thinks it is too early to celebrate) and the news that our country can’t find the parents of 545 children that our government separated from their parents at the border.
Magi’s Gift Under Threat: The Steep Decline of the Frankincense Tree
Frankincense has been prized since ancient times as a potential panacea, and today it’s being used in everything from skin-care products to cancer treatments. But the frankincense tree is in peril.
The Original ‘Blue Christmas’: New Advent Resources Focus on Grief, Justice Before Celebration
(RNS) — “To be honest, this has been a hard year,” Sarah Bessey admitted. As November gave way to the holidays, she sent an email to subscribers of her Field Notes e-newsletter. It was titled, “Does Advent even matter when the world is on fire?”
Marking Christmastime with Advent
While Dickens’s "A Christmas Carol" is not an overtly Christian story, the theme of starting over is. In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, he calls
Blessings from Unlikely Places
My favorite Christmas movie is "A Christmas Story," which tells the story of Ralphie Parker, a nine-year-old boy and his desire to receive an official Red Ryder carbine action, two-hundred shot
Registering Dissent
“Everyone went to their own town to register” (Luke 2:3).
The familiar Christmas story starts with a governmental registry. Tracking — and taxing — populations helped Rome
(Extra) Ordinary
An advent reflection by Blake McKinney, senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Lee's Summit, Mo.
Ordinary couple. Young people. Nearly married. Expectant parents. Gentle Mary. Pregnant virgin. Pregnant virgin!? Round
What Christmas means to me
Paul Gibson, executive minister for the Great Rivers Region of American Baptist Churches, reflects on "What Christmas Means to Me."
Advent, Aleppo & Bethlehem
An advent reflection on the viral image of Omran Daqneesh, a dazed five-year-old boy found in the rubble in Aleppo, Syria.
Light land, hope illumined enthuses the refugee soul.
Forgotten spaces at highway's end host sojourners cast out of home.
Reflecting on violence as part of Advent
On the second Sunday of Advent, the lawn of Highland Baptist Church in Louisville, Ky., will be covered with wooden crosses like one sees in