Author’s note:  This is the first article in a mini-series of articles reviewing Almost Christian by Princeton professor Kenda Creasy Dean.  All quotes without direct links are directly from the book’s first few chapters.  To hear Dr. Brown’s review of this book, click here.
A large-scale departure from a biblical understanding of what living as a [...]

“Therefore, those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.” -Acts 8.4
A man’s adherence to a doctrine or Christian theme in an ideal religious atmosphere can be a very dubious thing. When we are in our preferred sanctuaries, listening to our preferred worship songs, and standing alongside our preferred co-members, there is little to [...]

You can’t put honesty in a test tube.
“Science” doesn’t say anything—scientists do.
Those are a couple of the illuminating conclusions we can draw from the global warming [...]

It happened in the vestibule
At ten one Sunday morn;
A haggard-looking church-goer
Sat plaintive and forlorn.
Then suddenly he rose and found
A hungry-looking Christian;
He took his hand, took him aside,
And asked him a straight question:
“You’ve read the Word; you know the Book;
The promises are clear.
But have you seen the living God?
Have you found Him here?
Have you experienced holy [...]

A couple of days ago, atheists from around the country celebrated “Blasphemy Day”. As one website encouraged them to: “…admit to committing blasphemy against all gods. Religion is mythology. Gods are lies. Preachers are liars (yes, all of them), and anyone who believes in magic men in the sky are fools. Please take a moment [...]

“Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord….” -Rom. 12.10-11
From the nation of India decades ago, Amy Carmichael gives us this staggering story:
It was convention week in a hill station in India. The afternoon meeting was just [...]

On August 4th, 2009, George Sodini walked into a fitness center near Pittsburgh, PA and shot 12 people. Three women were killed, and Mr. Sodini himself committed suicide. The day before the murder-suicide, Mr. Sordoni wrote that he was going to “see God and Jesus” soon on his blog, saying:
Maybe soon, I will [...]

(This is a poem inspired by NT scholar F.F. Bruce’s description of the first Church in Jerusalem in the book of Acts. He dubbed them “the Spirit-possessed society.”)
I see a society, peppering the globe,
Through the lens of faith I’m permitted to probe,
Who are these ones, these fearless, ‘nothing-phobes’?
They rejoice like Paul, clinging like Job,
I see [...]

I want to just bring a brief word of exhortation at this time to all the readership of VOR. Whether you know the Lord or whether perhaps you are weighing up the cost of following Him. I am sensing at this time that even the best of us can be distracted from the key thing [...]

Perhaps it’s the holiday season–perhaps it’s just the excitement in the air over the election that’s come and gone, and the dreams people have of “something more” about to come (almost the feeling children have in dreaming about what they’ll find on Christmas morning), but as I write this article, my thoughts are drawn towards [...]