August 20, 2025

weekend reads

As summer starts to shift toward fall, we’re sharing stories from our archives about navigating transitions.

Back-to-school season can be stressful. Don’t underestimate the power of snacks, hugs, and naps in your kids’ spiritual life.
Maybe you’re starting a new job. Or maybe you find yourself leaving a longtime congregation, whether for logistical, theological, or personal reasons. Church homelessness is painful, writes our editor in chief: “People who do not allow themselves the time to grieve what is lost, in my experience, often end up in bad places.”
Fall is often a time when we recommit to Bible reading and prayer habits (and when pastors preach a particular kind of sermon series). How do we engage with Scripture in our postliterate age? And how do we slow down to speak to God when our world moves so fast?
Seeking real change to your heart, mind, and soul? Often, the process is less about processing new information and more about the embodied, emotional understanding of old truths. “We try to protect ourselves by numbing our hearts to the familiarity of the Christian story. And yet there are moments when our defenses drop—and we are jarred by hearing in the words of Scripture sung, recited, taught, or just read the Voice that summons, ‘Come, follow me.’”

Don’t Let the ‘Back-to-School Rush’ Diminish Your Humanity

True Change Is a Matter of the Heart

weekend listen

On our show Being Human, a former trauma-and-hospice chaplain turned pastor guides listeners into the world of emotional health: everything from anxiety and reactivity to triangulation, overfunctioning, and the Enneagram.

“Jesus clearly taught us that our relationships with our neighbor, ourselves, and God are all linked. So you work on one, and it can help all of them.” | Listen here.

Clarissa Moll & Steve Cuss Navigate Anxiety, Reactivity, and Emotional Freedom

End-of-Summer Editors’ Picks

Kate Lucky, senior editor, culture & engagement: A few years ago, Jenny Odell’s How to Do Nothing changed the way I think about time and attention. I’m hoping the same will be true of Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, which I’m bringing on vacation this week.

Kara Bettis Carvalho, ideas editor: Trader Joe’s is back with its dill pickle seasoning. Greek yogurt + this seasoning = healthy veggie dip.

Mia Staub, editorial project manager, online: Canopée is one of the best songs on my beach playlist.

August Is Make-A-Will Month!

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prayers of the people

For families who didn’t get a vacation this summer.
For those whose plans for a new season are curtailed by chronic pain, caregiving, or anxiety.

The World Says Accelerate. The Church Says Abide.

Prayer, fasting, and reading Scripture in community make our days more spacious.

Still Life with the Fruit of the Spirit

To be human is to be a maker of beauty and a steward of justice.

My Child’s Success Isn’t My Crowning Glory

In a culture that prizes academic achievement, prayers for our kids can sound like shallow negotiations with God.

Measuring the Good Life

New global data shows what makes for a flourishing life. It isn’t what we think.

VIEW OUR LATEST

IN THE MAGAZINE

As developments in artificial intelligence change daily, we’re increasingly asking what makes humanity different from the machines we use. In this issue, Emily Belz introduces us to tech workers on the frontlines of AI development, Harvest Prude explains how algorithms affect Christian courtship, and Miroslav Volf writes on the transhumanist question. Several writers call our attention to the gifts of being human: Haejin and Makoto Fujimura point us to beauty and justice, Kelly Kapic reminds us God’s highest purpose isn’t efficiency, and Jen Pollock Michel writes on the effects of Alzheimer’s . We bring together futurists, theologians, artists, practitioners, and professors to consider how technology shapes us even as we use it.

VIEW FULL ISSUE

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