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Pavlovian Pop-Worship versus Traditional Liturgies: On (just) going through the motions at church
A common reaction that I get from fellow twenty-somethings when I say I go to an Anglican church is a mixture of confusion and contempt. I regularly get befuddled, exasperated, and even concerned queries of Why? when I express my appreciation for ancient, liturgical forms of worship. Now, I certainly don’t expect it to be obvious to … Continue reading
Pensée #2: Wendell Berry on Supply and Demand
Rats and roaches live by competition under the law of supply and demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice and mercy. ~Wendell Berry, “Economy and Pleasure,” in What are People For?, p. 135
The (Triple) Bottom Line: Good Business for the Common Good
More and more businesses are rethinking what it means to be profitable. Thankfully, business people all over the world are waking up to the importance of considering not only how our business practices impact our bank accounts, but also how they impact our workers, our communities, and our environment. Anyone who is half awake did … Continue reading
5 Myths About Why Young Adults Drop Out of Church
The Barna group recently shared some of their findings from five years of research into the real reasons why young adults are dropping out of the church. The article is well worth a read for anyone but especially for parents, pastors, youth ministers, and campus ministers. Barna identifies 5 common myths about why young people … Continue reading
(Re-)Reading Matthew Together: Jesus’s Table (Manners), Jesus’s Kingdom and Jesus’s People in Matthew 15
Tonight the Graduate Christian Fellowship will be looking at Matthew 15, a chapter of the Gospel that has long been a challenge to me. The first half of the chapter narrates a clash between Jesus and the scribes and Pharisees over Jesus and His disciples’ disregard for the “tradition of the elders” concerning mealtime ritual … Continue reading
Spotlight on Jobs for Life
This is a great program: Part of InterVarsity’s mission is to help students and faculty to discover how their education and skills are for more than just occupations, they are for a God-given vocations–holy callings to do well things that are well worth doing. Doing this work in a university setting makes it easy … Continue reading
Bob Thune and Will Walker on “Community Idolatry”
One of the core values of InterVarsity’s Grad & Faculty Ministries is community, and, to be fair, community is a major buzzword in Christian circles nowadays. And rightly so. The gospel of Christ calls us not to a personalized piety and an individualistic salvation, but rather into new life in the Jew-plus-Gentile, slave-plus-free, male-plus-female, rich-plus-poor … Continue reading
Dorothy Sayers on a Christian view of work, industry, and economic health: Part I
On April 23rd, 1942, as the German Luftwaffe were beginning a series of devastating air raids on Britain’s cathedral cities, Dorothy Sayers gave a lecture on the Christian view of work and on what a healthy post-war economy might look like. World War II was a time of great austerity, as people tightened their belts … Continue reading
Vote Yes for Raleigh Transportation and Housing Bonds
The NC State GCF regularly volunteers with Wake County Habitat for Humanity and I have been volunteering with Habitat here and in Durham for some time now. So Habitat has a special place in our hearts, mine in particular. Habitat has been providing disadvantaged people with affordable housing for decades, and we can help them … Continue reading
On Just Sitting There Talking…and Changing the World
I just finished The Long Loneliness: The Autobiography of Dorothy Day. Along with the bohemian activist and thinker Peter Maurin, Day founded the Catholic Worker movement in 1933 in the middle of the Great Depression. The Catholic Worker began as a newspaper sold at a penny apiece (which is still the price today) which detailed … Continue reading
Hi! I'm David, the campus minister for InterVarsity's graduate and faculty ministries at NC State and Meredith College. I hope you'll join me as I learn to "practice resurrection" in the City of Oaks, in her universities, and in the wider world. You can contact me at dmwilliams83@gmail.com
