A couple’s weekly dinner invitations helped transform me from an embittered skinhead to a senior pastor.

I called my representatives again. This time, about the relationship of the United States with Canada. Here’s (roughly) what I said:

Two sick church members in their 90s got a pastoral “visit” from a friend—an astronaut stuck on the International Space Station.

Trust is such an integral and yet mostly hidden (at least for me) part of our information processing system. To further complicate things, it doesn't act by itself—people tend to trust things that fit their view of the world, and tend to be skeptical of things that seem unusual or surprising. This all makes sense. In everyday life, the last thing I need is to carefully evaluate everything coming in.

I recently attended a talk by Ian Barrs about Christians and their involvement in politics. One of his many points was that we cannot ignore Biblical commands in whatever involvement in politics we have, from chatting with friends to running for office. He gave a handful of examples of such commands: love other believers (John 13:34-35, John 17:20-21) love your neighbor (Luke 10:25-37)

I called my representatives recently—for the first time in over 20 years! Here's (roughly) what I said: My name is David Hjelle, and I live in Fargo, North Dakota. I'm calling today because of I have deep concerns about recent executive orders regarding refugees and immigrants. I don't have all the answers! However, I would like to hold our country to a high standard, the same standard that I try hold myself and my family to: …

I've been reading The Faithful Spy to my son recently, the story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Nazi Germany. Hindsight lends a lot of clarity on his moral decision-making. Bonhoeffer had a difficult lesson to learn: was his allegiance to Jesus one and the same as his allegiance to Germany? It seems so obvious in hindsight—but it is not obvious to a fish that they live in water, when it is all they have ever known.

Sustain the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program Urge President Trump to uphold his commitment to protecting persecuted Christians and for his administration