Social Sector

To Cade and the Eight Percent

by Gabe Lyons

My son Cade is a survivor. Eleven years ago this week, Rebekah and I celebrated the birth of our first-born. Despite his Down syndrome diagnosis, we were overjoyed to welcome this new life into our family.But not everyone welcomes children like Cade. It’s no secret. People with Down syndrome have been targeted for extinction...

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Science + Tech

Curbing Environmental Corruption

by Gary Bergel and Evangelical Enviornmental Network

Romans 8:22 says, "For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now." In light of this revelation, what does stewardship look like for followers of Jesus in the midst of global climate shifts and natural disasters?

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Church

Humility: The Starting Point

by John Koon

Sitting in a meeting in our hotel’s conference room outside of Kathmandu, Nepal, I found myself distracted and disengaged. A wave of anxiety, the afterbirth of the release of that odious phrase “dominant culture,” had crept up and smothered me. These two words, uttered just moments before, were reverberating like an obstinate pinball through the alleyways of my mind. And though the air continued to buzz with discussion and thought on the role of North Americans in the mission of Word Made Flesh, I remained silent, held prisoner by my worry...

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Social Sector

Sex Trafficking is Closer Than You Think

by Caitie Hlushak and Ted Sangalis

A common misbelief about sex trafficking is that the United States is only a destination country, that all of the victims of sex slavery within the U.S. have been carried across international borders. The truth is that literally untold numbers of U.S. citizens are trafficked within our own borders and in our neighborhoods every year.

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Gospel

The Appetite of North America

by Kyle Luck

The Bible depicts the early church as a flourishing community: a body of individuals devoted to Christ and committed to each other. Believers were of one heart and one mind, sharing everything that they had–even going as far as selling their land and houses in order to redistribute wealth to those who were in need. Imagine that. Imagine your world today: your house, your car, your laptop, and your cell phone shipped to a stranger, becoming homeless so someone else can be housed...

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Government

He Said, She Said on Health Care

by D. C. Innes and Lisa Sharon Harper

Engaging ideas that you don't agree with is a crucial aspect of intellectual maturity and demonstrates the posture of being provoked and not offended. In Left, Right & Christ, Lisa Sharon Harper and D.C. Innes explore how the Christian faith speaks directly to American politics but often leads to different applications. In this chapter excerpt, Ms. Harper (from the Left) and Dr. Innes (from the Right) explore the topic of Health Care in the United States. Please make sure you read both of their excerpts before adding your voice to the conversation.

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Church

Local Church Transforms City

Andy Crouch interviews Chris Seay

by Chris Seay

Chris Seay is among the most creative and surprising pastors in America. His church, Ecclesia, is in Houston's Montrose District, but it is really much more than a church. It's a multifaceted and creative community that is part of the fabric of their neighborhood. Here, Andy Crouch interviews Chris about what happens when a Church is more than a Sunday commitment.

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Gospel

A Serious Theology of Play

by David Naugle

Social critic H. L. Mencken once quipped that “puritans,” referring to serious-minded Christians, are “people who have a deep, foreboding fear that somebody, somewhere, might be having a good time.” Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once observed that Christians “have no joy.” He also said, should he ever come to believe in God, he would only believe in a “God who danced” (40). Sadly, he was never able to locate such a God...

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Government

NYC Churches forced to Vacate Neighborhoods

by Stanley Carlson-Thies

It’s a sad irony, really. December 8th was the thirtieth anniversary of the US Supreme Court decision, Widmar v. Vincent. In Widmar, the Court firmly set out the constitutional principle that government may not exclude religious groups from public spaces and other benefits on account of their religious speech or activities. And yet, only a few days before, on Monday, December 5th, the very same Court declined to review the Bronx Household of Faith case...

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Science + Tech

Q Review | Science and Origins

The Soul of Science: Christian Faith and Natural Philosophy and The Language of Science and Faith: Straight Answers to Genuine Questions

by Byron Borger

For anyone following the conversations about faith and science, it is obvious that one of the major trends—and a matter of great contentiousness—is how some scientists are doing deep research to dismantle the Darwinian notion that changes evolving in God’s creation happen randomly, by utter chance. Networks of scientists and philosophers of science, such as those loosely affiliated with what has come to be called the Intelligent Design movement, are increasingly respected, known for rigorous research...

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Social Sector

Preemptive Love

Remaking the World through Heart Surgery

by Jeremy Courtney

What does it take to save the lives of 30,000 children waiting in line for lifesaving heart surgery? Or to pursue peace between at-odds groups in a country at war? Jeremy Courtney draws from his last five years as a Christ-follower in Iraq’s most dangerous cities to establish “preemptive love” as the way to unmake violence, establish an enduring peace, and remake the world around us to the good of humanity and the glory of God.

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Science + Tech

What Technology Wants

by Kevin Kelly

We live in an age of innovation, and a debate is raging about whether technology is improving our lives or making them worse. But Kevin Kelly, co-founder of Wired Magazine, says we’re not asking the right questions. He believes we need to find out what technology is really after. Can technology be a force for the greater good, and if so, how do we thoughtfully engage new inventions? Kevin will attempt to construct a radically fresh answer to one of culture’s nagging questions.

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Arts + Entertainment

Do Our Favorite Movies Tell the Truth?

by Greg Veltman

Films serve a number of purposes in our society. Mostly, they tell stories, entertain audiences, and help us imagine the world in new and creative ways. The creators and distributors of films also contribute to our economy. But an often-overlooked purpose of film is that it should serve the common good. As a form of mass communication...

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Gospel

Spiritual Conversations: Understanding the Cultural Language

by Ron Martoia

Finding spiritual conversations in American culture is not hard, but conversations about the Christian God can be a different story. Consider the Gospel as a 4-part story and be introduced to a new language that can bring Christianity back into the spiritual conversations of our day.

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Business

How to Cope with a Toxic Boss

by Glenn Young

I’ve counted 24 bosses over the course of my career. The longest I ever worked for one boss was four years. The shortest was for a few months. I’ve had good bosses and bad. I’ve had capable, competent bosses, and bosses who weren’t. I’ve had bosses I liked, and ones I didn’t. I’ve had bosses who were scrupulously fair, and ones who played favorites. Of all the varieties of bosses and boss experiences, there were two – fortunately, only two – that I would call toxic...

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Social Sector

How Can You Forgive a Killer?

Forgiveness and Reconciliation in Rwanda

by Laura Waters Hinson

If it's hard to forgive the guy who cuts you off in rush hour traffic, how much more difficult is it to forgive those who kill your loved ones? What can we learn from the forgiveness that is happening in Rwanda? How can the church get involved in advancing reconciliation? Filmmaker, Laura Waters Hinson talks with Gabe Lyons about her film, As We Forgive, developing the craft of storytelling, and the latest projects she’s been working on.

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Church

What Do We Mean by "Prophetic"?

by Chris Heuertz and Sarah Kim

Go to most Western Christian bookstores, and you will encounter countless titles claiming to have a prophetic message or a handle on explaining prophecy. Competing extremes claim that the prophetic is qualified by the supernatural and miraculous, or that the prophetic is very grave and ominous with a harsh message and merciless tone.There is a crisis in our contemporary understanding of the prophetic...

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Media

What Should You Read in 2012?

by Alissa Wilkinson

For years, I’ve spent some time at the beginning of the new year thinking about the books I’d like to read in the months ahead. Book lists help me order my reading. They let me dream about what I’ll do in the next year. And even when I end up copy-and-pasting half of last year’s list into this year’s, they help me remember who I want to be in the next twelve months...

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Gospel

Top 11 Q Ideas of 2011

by Q Ideas

At Q, we believe that followers of Jesus have the responsibility to create culture and contribute to the common good of our society. In a mix of videos and essays, here is a brief look at the top culture-shaping ideas that Q has helped to cultivate and spread over the course of 2011.

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Gospel

Announcing Q Sessions | Practices with Eugene Peterson

in New York City

by Q Ideas

It’s no secret that our lives are too busy. If we don’t become more efficient, produce more, get ahead and stay ahead then it seems our culture will leave us behind. But as our outer lives continue to expand and upgrade, our inner lives are lost and neglected. On February 28-29th, 2012, Q hosts its next limited event in New York City, Q SESSIONS | PRACTICES, featuring Eugene Peterson.

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Restorers

Top Ten Culture Shaping Moments of 2011

by Q Ideas

Is culture really getting any better? Where’s the proof that all the dialogue and collaboration Q is committed to is having any impact? We’ve heard it all and we get it. Many think the work of “cultural renewal” is elusive, and understandably so. It’s not easy to show concretely how culture is changing over time. But in the following Top 10 List, we attempt to put on display that in mainstream culture, a movement is afoot.

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Church

The Reality of Christ's Birthplace, Then and Now

by Andrew Haas

Sleepy. Bethlehem was and is a drowsy town to this day, but not by choice. Jesus’ birthplace has been forced into a “deep and dreamless sleep,” the kind that descends upon a man or woman with a dwindling future, little livelihood and vacant hope. That’s not to say there is not an abundance of life. The streets of Bethlehem are an LED-lit extravaganza during this advent season. Muslims and Christians alike...

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Gospel

The Return to Sexual Holiness

An Excerpt from The End of Sexual Identity

by Jenell Williams Paris

Sexual identity has become an idol in both the culture at large and in the Christian subculture. And yet concepts like "gay" or "straight" are relatively recent developments in human history. We let ourselves be defined by socially constructed notions of sexual identity and sexual orientation--even though these may not be the only or best ways to think about sexuality. Anthropologist Jenell Williams Paris offers a Christian framework for sexual holiness that accounts for complex postmodern realities.

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Government

John Witherspoon, The American Founding and the First American Family Bible

by Jimmy Lin

To promote true religion is the best and most effectual way of making a virtuous and regular people. Love to God and love to man is the substance of religion. Founding Father John Witherspoon was a man who lived out his beliefs and who prayerfully made the most of every opportunity.

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Church

Nuclear Duck and Cover

Being Prepared for the Worst

by Tyler Wigg-Stevenson

Earlier this year, the Two Futures Project launched the Know Shelter initiative. They've spent four years engaging Christians to advance policies that will help prevent nuclear weapons from wreaking their awful havoc and the mass killing of innocents. But with Know Shelter, they're adding preparedness to the mix, to help churches equip their cities with the two critical steps that can save lives in the event of nuclear terrorism.

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Arts + Entertainment

Q Reviews | Young Adult Fiction

by Byron Borger

Young Adult Fiction has changed dramatically over the last ten years with the releases of several blockbuster fantasy series. Where are the novels that maturely and naturally weave entertaining stories with important, biblical truths? Byron Borger reviews two authors who write young adult and children’s literature that plumbs the depths of human experience while still crafting engaging stories.

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Social Sector

What's Your Secret?

by Rebekah Lyons

Secrets. We all have them, don't we?Tucking my son in at bedtime has become quite the confessional. It all started when he remembered taking a pen a year earlier from his teacher’s desk in hopes of surprising his sister later on the bus. Then, as if the dam had broken, a few nights later he remembered, “picking up" a box of crayons and putting them in his backpack. I wondered if my usually buttoned up son was on his way to a life of kleptomania...

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Cities

Announcing Q 2012 | Washington, D.C.

by Gabe Lyons

In a presidential election year, we felt there was no better place for Q to host 700 cultural leaders than our nation’s capital. Q is no ordinary gathering—it is a calling to all Christian leaders to be thoughtful and faithful as we engage a rapidly changing culture. As a part of this community, I hope you’ll seriously consider joining us...

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Business

Unions and the Common Good

by Brian Dijkema

2.8%: That is the difference between the rate of union membership and the rate of unemployment in the US. Union membership in the US is so low that many Americans aren’t even familiar with unions. What are they? What do they actually do? Unions are institutions in which workers organize together...

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Science + Tech

Science and Religion: Mixed Results

by Rusty Pritchard

Science and religion are at war. Or, at least that’s the impression you might get from bloggers who watch the spectacle of Republican primary candidate debates. Columnists at the New York Times and the Washington Post are up-in-arms at the hostility toward, and ignorance of, science on the part of the candidates, who seem to be vying to outdo each other in their anti-intellectualism...

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Gospel

Contemplative Activism as a Model for Mission

by Phileena Heuertz

The signs of the time can be troubling. Poverty, exploitation, war, global warming and over-consumption plague our planet. It seems like domination and exploitation are commonplace almost everywhere we turn. Christians, too, are often implicated in the violence. How can we offer a different kind of presence in the world and really make a redemptive impact? Contemplative activism must root us in offering the good...

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Gospel

Losing our Language

Reflections on Giving Thanks

by Ann Voskamp

If Thanksgiving is only for a day, we lose our selves–and our souls. New York Times bestselling author Ann Voskamp reflects on what we lose in the brevity of Thanksgiving celebrations.

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Gospel

Embracing Suffering

Healing through Acknowledging Loss

by Silas West

Catherine Piwang is no stranger to suffering; she saw an entire generation, including nine of her siblings, go missing in Uganda because of the HIV/AIDS crisis. Catherine has since devoted her life to helping thousands find healing from the loss of this middle generation. On a recent visit to northern Uganda, which has been devastated by years of civil war, she found another lost middle generation...

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Government

Innovation, Intellectual Property, and the Constitution

by Jason E. Summers

Innovation within markets relies on defined and enforced patent rights, which enable innovators to recoup development costs through the exercise of temporary monopoly. The Constitution grants Congress the power “to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing...inventors the exclusive right to their...discoveries.” Current debate over these protections centers around the question of whether...

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Church

The Sanctity of Human Life

by David P. Gushee

Most Christians at least give lip service to the idea that human life is sacred. Indeed, after a generation of fighting over issues such as abortion, stem cells, and euthanasia, the sanctity of life has become a slogan wielded by many Christians as justification for their positions. Yet, the concept is much more complex in its origins and its implications than is commonly understood. And it won’t be sufficient for Christians to continue mouthing a slogan without thinking through what it means and how it really affects our worldview...

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Science + Tech

The Beginning of the End of AIDS

by Mark Brinkmoeller

Today is World AIDS Day. After 30 years and 30 million funerals, the end of the global AIDS epidemic is suddenly, unexpectedly, within sight. It would be a final victory for this clever killer if Americans were too preoccupied...

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Arts + Entertainment

PBS 'Prohibition' and the Complexity of Sin

by Bethany Keeley-Jonker

The new Ken Burns series “Prohibition” aired recently on PBS. I had done some reading on the history of the 1920s but before my research, I thought that prohibition was a total failure. It didn’t prevent people from drinking and it fed organized crime. But what I did not know is that Prohibition, along with the temperance movement that led to its institution, did change the culture of alcohol...

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Education

Where are the Christians in Academia?

A Talk between Gabe Lyons and Duane Grobman

by Q Ideas

The Academy is unique in a lot of ways, both as a place of opportunity and also complexity and challenge for people of faith. Here, Gabe Lyons interviews Duane Grobman, Executive Director of the Mustard Seed Foundation and Director of the Harvey Fellows Program, a fellowship that sponsors Christians in diverse academic fields.

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Restorers

Consumerism

by Chris Seay

There is a counterfeit story that culture is telling us: when we get what we want, we will be happy. How can we get beyond faux happiness and realize authentic joy in pursuing a Kingdom oriented way of life? Consider how a deeper understanding of the Gospel could reshape your decision-making in a consumer-driven society.

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Social Sector

Feminine Identity and Sexuality

by Caitie Hlushak

Our great-great-grandmothers dreamed of seeing their daughters and granddaughters stand side by side with men: equal in dignity, respect and achievement. Our culture tells us that the Women's Rights Movement, the Feminist Movement and the Sexual Revolution unlocked our cages and set us free to be man’s equal. But have we really achieved equality?

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Business

Your Company Will Save the World!

by Bradley J. Moore

I reached down from my sunny lounge chair on the deck and pulled a random issue of Harvard Business Review from my briefcase stash, turned to the cover story and started reading. The first few lines were like a smack up the side of my sunburned head. The essay was called, "How to Fix Capitalism," by famous Harvard Business School Professor and strategy guru, Michael Porter, and he opens with this bleak assessment: Business is increasingly viewed as a major cause of social, environmental and economic problems. Ouch...

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Restorers

Cycle of Hope

by Tom Ritchey

Tom Ritchey is one-of-a-kind. From building bicycle frames as a teen to leading Ritchey Designs thirty-five years later, Tom is credited with pioneering the mountain bike movement that has since swept the globe. But, he always knew there was more work to be done. While pedaling 10,000 miles each year, he discovered the next place that could use his ingenuity—the heart of Africa. In this Q Portland talk, see first hand what one man’s calling looked like when his greatest talents confronted the burdens of a culture.

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Arts + Entertainment

What is a Picture Worth?

by Cara Davis

My mother has no fewer than 40 photographs of my daughter—her only grandchild—on display in her home. When you walk into her three-bedroom, ranch-style home, there is little question who her heart orbits around.It's often said a picture is worth a thousand words, but to her, one word is worth a thousand pictures: Madilyn. I cannot imagine what it must be like for many people who never have pictures taken–formally or informally. But for most, it's a luxury ill afforded when you're struggling to put food on the table or maintain a roof over your head...

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Government

President of "This Nation, Under God"

Abraham Lincoln

by Jimmy Lin

“I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for that day.” These are not words coming from some helpless beggar or an uneducated man. These are the words of the sixteenth President of the United States. Abraham Lincoln is considered the greatest President of the greatest nation in the world, yet he reveals that all his security, intelligence, and strength rest on...

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Cities

Postmodern Wells: Creating A Third Place

by Mark Batterson

The church is no longer the center of community life. Rather than admit defeat, Mark Batterson believes the church has an obligation to create new ways to engage our communities. Hear the story of one church that has created new places for their community to connect both with each other, and also with God.

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Government

Social Mobility and Power

Interview with Michael Linsday, Sociologist and President of Gordon College

by Andy Crouch and Michael Lindsay

Recently named the 8th president of Gordon College, Michael Lindsay has been a leading expert on religion and public life over the last several years. As a sociologist and professor at Rice University, Lindsay has interviewed hundreds of Christ followers who are in positions of cultural power. In this interview, he and Andy Crouch explore the relationship between Christians, social mobility, and power.

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Social Sector

Why are the Women Fading?

by Rebekah Lyons

It's 3:45 a.m. and you have been lying awake for almost an hour, plagued by self-doubt and anxiety. It begins with your son’s dropping grades at school, and how he is losing his confidence. This rabbit trails to your daughter’s heart, and the defiance that leaves you exhausted. You blame yourself and how you are failing to reach her. The clock keeps ticking and you move on to other stressors: you don't call your parents enough, your siblings are far away, you have an inbox that never empties...

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Arts + Entertainment

Margin Call and the Banality of Evil

by Josh Larsen

The new Wall Street drama Margin Call is only slightly less boring than a quarterly report. And that’s exactly what makes it so frightening. Set at an imploding investment firm on the eve of the 2008 financial collapse, Margin Call means to capture the panic of that moment and raise our moral hackles over the dubious decisions surrounding it.

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Media

Fiction for the Common Good

The Calling of Christian Writers

by Richard Doster

Ask your neighbors for an off-the-cuff reaction to the words “Christian literature” and you’re likely to hear them stumble through a list of belittling adjectives. Despite the swelling ranks of able Christian writers, the reaction demonstrates that we are now viewed as an inconsequential presence in the world of literature. We have banished ourselves to the “inspiration” section at the back of Barnes & Noble. And by doing so, we may have left literature in the hands of writers who’d leave them hopeless...

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Media

Q Reviews | Memoirs

Book Reviews of The Seven Story Mountain and Lit: A Memoir

by Byron Borger

In listing an old and a new book in a common genre, the idea of writing about memoirs thrilled me.  I've got many recent favorites. If I were to pick one memoir from decades ago, however, it is this remarkably popular story of a restless Columbia University literature student who, famously, left it all to become a Trappist monk...

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Government

Crisis in the Horn of Africa

Famine, War, and Drought

by Chris LaTondresse

One of the worst humanitarian crises in more than six decades has struck more than 13.3 million people in the Horn of Africa. Some experts estimate that over 30,000 kids have died in the past four months alone. In fact, by the time you finish reading this post, another child will be dead. Lack of rainfall, soaring food prices and a violent extremist movement in Somalia have combined forces...

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Arts + Entertainment

Unsettled Questions

by Dave Bazan and David Dark

In a wide-ranging conversation interspersed with song, author of The Sacredness of Questioning Everything David Dark and musician Dave Bazan (formerly, of Pedro the Lion) will discuss the struggles of a questioning faith. They’ll wrestle with the joys and tensions of attempting to sustain a creative and neighborly livelihood without lying or going crazy. Their back-and-forth will include their appreciation of the witnessing work on offer by contemporary truth tellers, David Simon, Cormac McCarthy, Leonard Cohen, and the Brothers Coen.

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Social Sector

Christians Should Put Up or Shut Up

On Adoption

by Jason Locy

When the Arkansas Supreme court struck down a voter-approved initiative that banned co-habitating straight and gay couples from adopting orphaned children, the Christian community predictably erupted. Byron Babione of the Alliance Defense Fund, attributed the April ruling to a “political movement afoot to undermine and destroy marriage.” On one hand, these comments aren’t surprising. Conservative evangelicals have decried “the anti-family gay agenda” for decades.

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Arts + Entertainment

Making Giving Easier

by Steven Paletta

What happens when a 43-year-old real estate developer from Bedford, NY wins a million dollars? Does he spend it on himself or give it away? This was the question facing Stephen Paletta, winner of “Oprah’s Big Give,” in 2008. Today, as founder of The Give Back Foundation, he helps fund charitable causes around the world through a groundbreaking giving structure focused on average, every day Americans. Listen as Paletta shares how the biggest corporations in the world will give to your foundation so you can fund your vision.

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Gospel

Upending Einstein

by Caryn Rivadeneira

I don’t normally catch up on the world of physics before I start my day. And yet, the other morning this headline got my very first click: “Speed of light maybe not fastest after all." Perhaps it was because I had just been talking to my youngest son about why we see lightning before we hear thunder. Perhaps because I correctly sensed this was, actually, big news...

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Arts + Entertainment

A Song of Hallelujah

Purpose in George Frideric Handel's Music

by Jimmy Lin

The Hallelujah Chorus, within the oratorio called Messiah, is an easily recognizable piece of music and is often played throughout the Christmas season. Its creator was George Frideric Handel, a famous classical music composer and recognized as one of the most famous of the Baroque period in the 1700’s, whose other popular works include Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks. His earthly father called him to the study of law, but his heavenly Father called him to make a greater impact...

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Social Sector

Animals: Should We Care?

by Wayne Pacelle

When we speak of our “humanity,” it’s grounded in our capacity as humans to exhibit empathy for others. It’s our innate empathy that prompts us to care not only for members of our families or our friends and neighbors, but also for those we’ve never met, especially the needy. This altruistic instinct motivates so many good works in society, and there are millions who help by sheltering the poor, feeding the hungry, or curing the ill...

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