Digging in and Digging Deeper

Reality is typically more complicated than the stories we're fed on the news (and probably even more so, if our news comes primarily from a partisan-leaning cable news outlet). Part of the work that lies in front of us as people of the Truth, is taking the news with a grain of salt, digging in little deeper, and balancing the news with the experience we have of relationships with family members, neighbors, and even fellow church members. Below you'll find a few timely stories that challenge conventional wisdom. Becoming the sort of people that desire friendships and are slow to judge, quick to listen, and slow to become angry, is a crucial part of the formation that we at Cultivating Communities believe that God is up to in our local congregations.

Cultivating Communities works alongside cohorts of churches that are in close-proximity to each other, providing resources and helping them discern what it might look like for their congregations and their places to flourish. Our first two cohorts (one in the mountains of East Tennessee and one on the west side of Chicago) are now underway.

(Learn more about our cohorts and 
the Cultivating Communities Learning Journey)

A ‘missionary to Christian nationalists'? Caleb Campbell hopes hospitality and kindness — rather than arguments — can lead away from the fusion of God and country. "I think there needs to be an intentional discipleship process, to dismantle what is unhealthy and to rebuild people with a more gospel-centered vision of what it means to be a Christian.”  (via Religion News Service )

Should We Cancel Luther and Calvin? The Reformers believed in burning heretics, notes N.T. Wright. Making sense of that grave mistake means looking first at ourselves.  (via Christianity Today)