Toxic polarization is one of the defining traits of American culture in the 21st century. After the assassination attempt at the White House Correspondence Dinner last month, voices were divided. Some on my social media feed shared theories about why the whole event must have been staged; others shared perspectives that the new White House ballroom will prevent such attempts in the future. These posts were more prominent than those who simply decried the specific act of potential violence...

Back in 2015, I wrote a devotional book called Crossbound exploring several passages from the Gospel of Luke that detail all that Jesus undertook to show his love for us during that original Holy Week. For this month’s column, which will arrive during Holy Week, I thought it might be helpful to share a couple of passages from the final chapter, entitled “Celebrating Holy Week.” “Christians celebrate Holy Week and all of the different days that it comprises: Palm Sunday, when Jesus...

Our overarching theme is “In our synod, we’ll try anything to equip and support leaders who attend to God’s creative, emerging future.” People most invested in our ministry together will often quote with pride the “we’ll try anything” part of this statement. In this column, though, I want to tell you about some new initiatives we’re taking on this year to equip and support leaders: an in-person leadership conference, a racial justice speaker series, and a Christian nationalism workshop...