Ever since I took my first Old Testament course in college—and that was a long time ago—I’ve heard that the rainbow in the Noah story represents God’s unstrung war bow.
Connections 07.15.2018: Containing Your Excitement
July 8, 2018 by
I grew up in the so-called Bible Belt, that strip of the South where church is king and good religious folks are expected to adhere to a certain set of standards. In many churches, dancing was (and in some places still is) forbidden.
Formations 02.12.2017: The Space Between
February 5, 2017 by
I have a typewriter that I sometimes use. It’s modeled after an IBM Selectric, and even though I use it less than my computer, it reserves a permanent place on my desk. I recognize the absurdity of giving it exclusive access to this space. Still, I defend it by arguing that it makes me write more than edit an early draft.
Formations 01.29.2017: God’s Covenant with Noah
January 22, 2017 by
Two friends and I, waiting for others to arrive, had walked down to the southeastern end of Tybee Island, where the mouth of Tybee Creek and the Atlantic met. The tide started to come back in, and for whatever reason, we set our things down and dug channels with our feet to connect the tidal pools and the incoming ocean.
Don’t Be Mean: A Covenant Story
December 10, 2014 by
Ben says one of our Covenant mottos is, “Don’t be mean.” I really like that in a church. There are more Scriptural-sounding ways to say the same thing, but something about stripping wisdom of its religious jargon seems to keep us more honest.
Slow: A Covenant Story
November 11, 2014 by
Trying to rush something at Covenant Baptist Church is like trying to sprint in waist-deep water. It doesn’t work. Every time we think about cranking it up, some invisible force slows us.
Eulogy to the Trees: A Covenant Story
October 8, 2014 by
They tell me that when they built this building, they plotted its location just so, where as few trees as possible would have to come down. To this day, there are trees in the middle of the parking lot because no one wanted to take them out.