Opinion

• An intercultural exchange brings healthy theology to life

  Asia Society & Culture Bible & Theology

  4 mins read

  Understanding the universality of kindness, patience, and harmony matters. Faith is not always visible, it survives and sustains itself in the same way peace does—through attentiveness, restraint, and small acts that refuse to escalate difference into division.

• Benefitting from God's perfect work of patience

  Africa Family & Children Bible & Theology

  9 mins read

  In the 1970s Stanford Experiment, children were driven by tangible, temporal reward if they waited before taking a marshmallow. In real life, for the believer, patience is attached to spiritual and eternal hope and truth, even when the waiting is hard. Patience is a work God does rather than a virtue we must apply.

• Spiritual formation must precede social action

  US & Canada Society & Culture

  4 mins read

  If Christians simply act out of a felt need to “do something,” their resulting actions could be unhelpful or even counterproductive, like Simon Peter’s pointless, rash aggression in removing the ear of a servant. Wes Granberg-Michaelson's Soulwork of Justice provides much wisdom for Christian social activists. Lent is a perfect time to contemplate it.

• The grace-filled significance of Lent

  Europe Church & Missions

  6 mins read

  Lent can sound sombre, restrictive, even joyless. And yet, year after year, I return to it with fresh gratitude. Lent is God, in his kindness, giving us time. Lent can sound sombre, restrictive, even joyless. And yet, year after year, I return to it with fresh gratitude. Lent is God, in his kindness, giving us time. Here are four reasons why it remains one of the most life-giving seasons of the Christian year.