Pilgrim's Road Trip

What’s A Nice Jewish Grandmother Like You Doing At Seminary?

Michelle Van Loon — Sat, 17 Jun 2017 21:38:26 +0000

In 2013, I became a grad student at Northern Seminary. I wrote about the experience in this space here. My life-altering health diagnosis and costly montly treatments derailed my hopes of completing a degree, but the school was kind enough to tabulate the credits I did earn and grant me a graduate certificate. I am […]

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No Such Thing As A Free Lunch

Michelle Van Loon — Sun, 28 May 2017 18:49:59 +0000

Precious few of us will ever receive an invitation to travel for free to the Holy Land or to tour with a group of high-level Christian influencers to witness first-hand the stories behind the headlines in places like Rwanda, Guatemala, or Haiti. But the experience of those who are invited on all-expenses-paid educational junkets sponsored […]

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Jerusalem Day 2017

Michelle Van Loon — Sun, 21 May 2017 19:12:17 +0000

This Tuesday evening at sundown, the Jewish community will commemorate Jerusalem Day – the 50th anniversary of the day the vastly-outnumbered Israeli army reclaimed and reunified the Old City of Jerusalem during the Six Day War. My husband and I experienced the depth of the connection the Jewish people have with this place during our […]

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Shavuot, Pentecost: To Learn, To Try, To Eat

Michelle Van Loon — Thu, 18 May 2017 00:46:58 +0000

Shavuot begins at sundown on Tuesday, May 30th. Click here for a 5-minute guide to the holiday. Pentecost is Sunday, June 4th. Click here for a 5-minute guide to the holiday. Why am I pairing these two holidays? Because just as every other part of Jesus’ ministry was rooted in his observant Jewish identity, the story […]

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What Does “Rejoice In The Lord” Mean?

Michelle Van Loon — Mon, 15 May 2017 12:15:38 +0000

Not long ago, an acquaintance asked me how I was doing. She knows my husband and I are facing a number of serious trials. I was having a hard day, and told her so. My words hung in the air for a moment. She rushed to fill the uncomfortable silence with a Bible verse encouraging […]

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Farewelling well

Michelle Van Loon — Tue, 02 May 2017 12:17:37 +0000

Many Evangelicals were shocked to hear that one of their own, broadcaster Hank Hanegraff, host of The Bible Answer Man syndicated radio program, had joined the Orthodox Church. Hanegraff’s faith shift is another account of a former Evangelical moving to a different stream of the Church. When former Evangelical Theological Society president Francis Beckwith joined […]

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Some Thoughts On The Relationship Between Bloggers And The Local Church

Michelle Van Loon — Mon, 01 May 2017 14:47:57 +0000

I watched a cyclone of furor erupt online last week in response to Tish Harrison Warren’s CT Women piece entitled Who’s In Charge of the Christian Blogosphere? in which she called for greater accountability between Christian bloggers and their local churches and/or denominations. Though she was writing to a female audience, the message of her post […]

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Introducing: Long Days Of Small Things

Michelle Van Loon — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 13:27:35 +0000

When writer-friend Catherine McNeil told me she was writing about the spiritual formation embedded in the baby-toddler-preschooler years, I was anxious to read what she had to say. I well remember discovering that the discipleship model I followed before I had children (hours of uninterrupted Bible study, reading, prayer, and service to others) needed an overhaul […]

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It’s Still Easter: One Thing To Learn, One To Taste

Michelle Van Loon — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 20:51:28 +0000

It’s the Wednesday after Easter. All the decent candy (chocolate bunnies and Starburst jelly beans) marked 60% off is gone from the clearance section at Walgreens. The candy may be gone, but it’s still Easter on the liturgical church calendar. The fifty-day Easter season mirrors the fifty days between Passover and Shavuot in the Jewish […]

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Is It Possible To Think For Ourselves AND Pursue Spiritual Community?

Michelle Van Loon — Mon, 17 Apr 2017 13:49:48 +0000

At one end of the spectrum, we have the language of the Benedict Option, which includes a call to nurture a comprehensive Christian worldview in the greenhouse of a shared, committed faith community. At the other end of the spectrum, we have encouragement for believers to think for themselves a la the Bereans named in […]

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