Community

A handful of Praxis Members spent the year developing projects that spoke to them, and their communities. Many are ongoing efforts to rethink the way we develop and participate in our faith, while others are resources like music, writing, and curriculum. Here’s a snapshot of where to find more info.

We’ve all heard the statistics about how 80 percent of white Evangelicals voted for Donald Trump. But what about those who didn’t? Are they jumping ship? Hunkering down? Speaking out? Certainly there are examples of all these responses but there are a number of white Evangelicals who are working increasingly harder to make it clear that they are not the ones who put Trump into office. 

As part of the Westar Institute, Praxis in part seeks to bridge the gap between religious scholarship and culture. To that end, we've put together a list of resources for those preaching, teaching, leading -- or just wanting deeper exposition -- during the season of Lent and Easter. Our list includes some brand-new material as well as past books, articles, blog posts, audio, and more to help people think critically about the historicity and meaning of the Passion narrative. We hope this list will be helpful!

Westar has a lot of wonderful resources aimed at the life of Jesus, the movement he started, his death, and the ideas surrounding his resurrection. We’ve made a compilation of various resources available specifically for Lent and Easter. As part of that, I wanted to reflect on these concepts from the perspective of a working preacher. In addition to my role at Westar, I am also a Minister and Chaplain and although I don’t preach every Sunday I’m in the pulpit enough that I frequently find myself wondering how to best portray the events and theology around Jesus’ death and resurrection. 

Why was Jesus baptized? In light of the work Westar scholars have done on this topic recently, I posed this question to my congregation. But before we can begin to understand the answer to this question — at least in a Congregational context — I think we have to step back and ask, “Why are we baptized?”