Culture & Perspectives

The heat of summer was in full swing in Dearborn, Michigan, where I was serving as a Kingdom Professional with BIC U.S. World Missions. I had just returned from some time with family at home in Pennsylvania and was helping my church invite neighbors – many of whom were Arab-Americans - to a backyard kids club…

Henry Miller, an American Novelist, said, “To be silent the whole day, see no newspaper, hear no radio, listen to no gossip … to be thoroughly and completely indifferent to the fate of the world is the finest medicine a [person] can give [themselves].” This is from Miller’s 1941 travelogue and is perhaps more vividly captured in Andrew Wyeth’s 1961 Distant Thunder artwork…

For decades, Bible Quizzing was a pillar of youth ministry for the BIC. Groups of teenagers studied vast passages of scriptures together, preparing to go up against teams from other churches in regional, national, and even world competitions. In this article by Ken Letner first published in the Evangelical Visitor in 1982…

The Evangelical Visitor was the denominational paper for the Brethren in Christ from 1887 to 2003. Issues included denominational news; marriage, death, and birth announcements; thoughtful reflections on life in Christ; and occasionally even satire! In the February 1923 issue of the Visitor…

Some things are hard - really, really hard. Perhaps at the top of the list of really, really hard things is to be a follower of Jesus who is becoming more like him. Becoming more like Jesus is made more challenging when the patterns and pressures of our contexts…

This article’s crux, like the rest of Scripture, hangs on the Great Commandment (Matt. 22:37-40) to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, and mind, and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. In other words, loving the Lord and loving our neighbors isn’t up for a debate among followers of Jesus…

Christianity can often be an abstraction. Something of God that is true and right and good is spoken of and promoted, often with a deficiency of personal reality and experience. Teachers, preachers, and theologians are common perpetrators, speaking of truths that are truth absent of an experience that would lead to authenticity…

It was a warm October day in Southern California, and the meeting room held a quiet buzz as twenty pastors waited for the course to start. These pastors had gathered from across California, Arizona, and even Japan to attend a BIC U.S…

Pictured from left to right: Naomi Smith, member from the Susquehanna Conference; Jose Rodriguez, member-at-large from the Southeast Conference; and Brian Mbuu, member-at-large from the Atlantic Conference. Over the past two years, we’ve added many new members to our General Conference Board (GCB)…

As a young, newly married pastor, I had grandiose plans for how Micah, my husband, and I would form new traditions around Christmas. I read of an idea - most likely from scrolling for a prolonged period of time on Pinterest - that a brilliant way to count down to Christmas was to create your own Advent calendar…