This past weekend we hosted an outdoor dinner party, a garden party if you will. It was a beautiful night of feasting on tangy hoisin pork, crunchy Asian slaw, fresh Israeli salad, still-warm bread, and more. Our guests showed up in festive summer clothes, happy to be in airy dresses rather than thick sweaters after a seemingly unending winter. We sipped wine from the other side of the world and danced under paper lanterns to a playlist made just for the occasion. It was all

Sometimes, when we’re hurt and tired and fearful and fed up, we forget who we are. We forget our identity and who God created us to be, who he calls us to be. In the midst of our humanness, we forget we are God’s children. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus calls his followers to claim their rightful identity—the identity God chose for us when he created us. He calls us to be people who are different from the societies in which we live, different than the fearful, cut-throat c

There was a fascinating article posted yesterday byThis Is Our City called, “You Can’t Buy Your Way to Social Justice.” It’s an article written to my generation of American Christians who are focused on saving the world by buying fair-trade coffee, fair-wage clothing, and upcycled accessories. The author, Rachel Pieh Jones, not only speaks to my generation—she speaks directly to me. I am conscious with my shopping. I care about buying organic cotton to protect the farmers i

Today was a good day. I woke up early to bake bread and an egg dish for Mother’s Day brunch. I shuffled around the kitchen in my pjs, making a mess of flour and egg. I spent a few leisurely hours in front of the TV with my husband waiting for the bread to rise. And then we spent several hours eating and laughing and chatting over the kitchen table with my parents, my sister, and her boyfriend. It was glorious. And simple. And filling—for both our stomachs and our hearts. I sp

Sometimes I forget just how passionate I am about small groups. I mean, I work for SmallGroups.com, so I literally think about small groups every day. How can I forget about this passion? But alas, I do. It's easy to begin thinking that this is how everyone feels about small groups, that everyone knows the benefits and the reasons to join a small group. But that's simply not true. Actually, a lot of people don't. But tonight I finished a freelance assignment on starting