History
Ben Peltz on Indigenous Justice and Worship in Canada

Joining a racial justice pilgrimage in the American South helped a Canadian pastor see parallels to the experiences of Indigenous and settler peoples in his congregation. These insights are helping his church become more appreciative of God’s incarnation in Indigenous people.

June 20, 2025 | 9 min read
Jemar Tisby on The Spirit of Justice

The Black church has deep experience of suffering and being denied God-given and legal rights. As turbulent times affect more people, Jemar Tisby’s book The Spirit of Justice: True Stories of Faith, Race, and Resistance describes how Black Christians have kept the faith. 

June 3, 2025 | 6 min read
Jared Ortiz on the Dramatic Nature of the Nicene Creed

Jared Ortiz, professor at Hope College, Holland, Michigan, describes the Nicene Creed as a dramatic and powerful statement where every word is like a declaration of war, saying yes to the truth and no to many falsehoods. 

May 21, 2025 | 38 min listen

Jane Williams on the Nicene Creed as a Creative and Exciting Description of Who God Is

Jane Williams, professor of theology at St. Mellitus College in London, England, sees the Nicene Creed, crafted 1700 years ago, as an extraordinary creative and exciting description of who God is and therefore what we trust in as Christians in God's world. 

May 21, 2025 | 26 min listen
Maria Eugenia Cornou and Mikie Roberts on the Doxological and Historical Significance of the Nicene Creed

Maria Eugenia Cornou and Mikie Roberts serve on a planning team for an October worship event in Egypt to mark the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea and the ecumenical creed that emerged in the year 325 and remains firmly embedded in the worship practices of the church today. 

May 21, 2025 | 36 min listen
Worship and Other Resources for Celebrating Juneteenth

You don’t have to be Black or attend a predominantly Black church to celebrate Juneteenth with appreciation and respect. Many resources are available for your congregation to cosponsor or plan a God-honoring Juneteenth event or worship service.

May 12, 2025 | 13 min read

Juneteenth: Celebrating Faith and Freedom

Pastor and educator Rasool Berry hosted and coproduced the award-winning documentary Juneteenth: Faith and Freedom. He explains why US Christians of every race and culture can and should celebrate God’s work through people to announce and enforce freedom from slavery. 

May 6, 2025 | 11 min read
Demetrius K. Williams: African American Christians Enlarged the Meaning of the Cross

Through spirituals, freedom narratives, conversion accounts, and Black preaching, enslaved African Americans shared the embodied hope of Jesus’ death and resurrection. Like Paul, they proclaimed that the power of the cross of Christ should advance how the church participates in and quests for a more just and equitable world.  

January 14, 2025 | 8 min read
Demetrius K. Williams: Reclaiming the Full Power of the Cross

Probably every Christian knows that Paul preached about the power of the cross of Christ for personal salvation. But Christians often miss Paul’s discourse on the power of the cross of Christ to bring about social transformation. Reclaiming the full power of the cross should bring about unity and equality—in body, soul, mind, spirit, and voice—in the body of Christ and society.  

January 2, 2025 | 8 min read

Helen Rhee on Early Christianity’s Views on Wealth and Poverty

Many Christians think that how they acquire and use money is peripheral to the gospel. Relatively few preachers address wealth and poverty in their sermons. Yet early Christianity proclaimed and practiced the countercultural value of caring for the poor. Their worship services reflected this value.

November 7, 2024 | 7 min read
Helen Rhee on Illness, Pain, and Health Care in Early Christianity

Accounts from ancient historians and early church fathers show that caring for and visiting the sick was an essential marker of what it means to be a Christian. Their example of addressing illness, pain, and health care for everyone, not just Christians, holds lessons for today’s worship planners.

October 25, 2024 | 8 min read
Lisa Fields on the Christian Heritage of Africa

Exploring African Christianity’s golden era and its continued impact on global Christianity helps Black millennials and Gen Zers see themselves in God’s redemptive history. It also provides a needed corrective to all who identify Christianity as mainly a white religion.

February 7, 2024 | 5 min read