by Christian Coon | Jun 30, 2017
This “Failing Boldly” podcast is an interview with Brian McLaren, noted Christian author and speaker. Brian speaks about his own failures as a pastor and church planter and also about the failures of the church in the 21st century and how we can and should...
by Christian Coon | Jun 21, 2017 | BLOG, Evangelism, LGBTQ
In honor of Pride Week here in Chicago, this week’s post is an excerpt from my book about our church’s experience with the Pride Parade: Every year on the last Sunday of June, an estimated one million people line the streets in Chicago’s Uptown, Lakeview,...
by Christian Coon | Jun 15, 2017 | BLOG, Evangelism
Every year each of our Urban Village sites pays a vendor fee so that it can have a presence in one of Chicago’s many neighborhood summer festivals. Our South Loop site just finished its second involvement with the Printers Row Lit Fest last weekend. I signed up...
by Christian Coon | Jun 7, 2017 | BLOG
When raising children, it’s very easy to let toys accumulate (like the Legos that are still in one of our storage baskets above). As kids outgrow their favorite playthings, the action figures and blocks and dolls make their way into closets or other storage...
by Christian Coon | May 17, 2017 | BLOG
Marketing alert! Just a heads up that my new book comes out in two or three weeks (you can also pre-order it here) so I’ll be using reflections and stories from the book through June. Maybe longer. 🙂 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up and go. Your faith has healed you.”...
by Christian Coon | May 10, 2017 | BLOG
”and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 1:14)Many of you know that my wife and I just returned from a trip to South Korea. The trip was organized by the Northern Illinois Conference of The United...
by Christian Coon | May 2, 2017 | BLOG
Having the courage to speak up can be challenging sometimes and it’s even more of a challenge to figure out what words to use. Words are particularly important during Palm Sunday and that’s what I reflect on this week using Matthew 21:1-11....
by Christian Coon | May 2, 2017 | BLOG
That’s what I kept telling myself these past 14 years. I sometimes even threw in the word “just” before “a.” I always prefaced that comment or thought with a “Don’t get me wrong, I love my dog” but, still, whenever we were thinking about the kind of place we were...
by Christian Coon | Apr 5, 2017 | BLOG
But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door to pray to your Father who sees in secret will reward you. (Matthew 6:6, NRSV)Some folks know that many moons ago I used to work as the Director of Communication for the national headquarters of the fraternity...
by Christian Coon | Mar 29, 2017 | BLOG
Jesus responded, “Go away, Satan, because it’s written, ‘You will worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’” (Matthew 4:10, CEB) “I was talking to a friend the other day and the subject of families came up. I asked him if he had any siblings and he stated...
