We stuck it out. We stayed at our church as long as we could, tried to stay loyal to the very end. During the drama, during the declining effort put forth each Sunday, during the exodus of couple after couple, family after family — we were there. …

Oh, Facebook, and Instagram, and Snapchat, how I love and hate you. You have made it possible for me to stay connected with all my friends I’ve ever had and made it almost impossible for me to escape them, for even a moment. You have inspired me to elevate my…

The words “deconstruction” and “reconstruction” have become very trendy in the Christian and ex-Christian communities, and for good reason. The process of “deconstruction”, where people refute, disprove, and walk away from previously held Christian or “churchy” ideas, has become a commonly shared experience, especially among Millennials and Gen-Z’s. “Reconstruction” is…

My first holiday season as a widow was one filled with one conflicting emotion after another. That Thanksgiving was more of a blur than anything, and I’ve realized the memories of it are all just the ones saved in my phone’s camera roll. …

Being raised in a very conservative household which prohibited immodest clothing (i.e. anything other than long sleeves and long skirts and dresses) sparked some angst for me as a teenage girl who just wanted to fit in. I couldn’t wear 95% of the trends that my non-fundamentalist friends wore. I…

Look at that old guy over there, in the pew to the right of us. He wasted all his good years on drugs. Now he’s desperate for a Jesus fix. He’s been labeled a loser for long enough to have embraced it a long time ago. That girl in front…

As I approach 30, I’m ever more flattered when someone guesses that I’m in my early twenties, or younger. Grateful that the lines on my forehead and around my eyes aren’t as noticeable to others as they are to myself, because they taunt me every time I look in the…

Most of us growing up in evangelical households in the 90’s are familiar with VeggieTales. Oh, those delightful, singing vegetables, who taught us Bible stories AND encouraged us to eat more veggies, somewhat ironically. Remember that story about King George (aka Larry the Cucumber), and how he played with his…

It was a glorious Sunday morning when I walked into New Life Church for the first time (name changed for privacy reasons and because this is a very true story). …