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CSA’s free weekly publication, a carefully curated collection of original articles at the intersection of spiritual formation and social action.
By Christine Sine
Why is it so difficult to put God’s priorities first? We talk about Sabbath but find it hard to practice. Could it be that we’ve misunderstood its purpose? The busyness and consumerism of our culture not only steal our time but also shape our focus.
By Nikki Toyama-Szeto
Season 6, Episode 10
This week on 20 Minute Takes, Nikki talks with Jesse Rudy. Trained as an attorney, Jesse is the founder and CEO of Redeem International, a Christian faith-based nonprofit that protects some of the world’s most vulnerable widows and orphans from violent abuse and exploitation.
By CSA Team
What does it mean to have hope—real hope? Gospel hope? And what does hope look like when we are in the midst of questionable, unsettling, or unsure times?
Is hope naïve?
By Nikki Toyama-Szeto
Season 6, Episode 9
This week, David de Leon interviews CSA Executive Director and 20 Minute Takes host Nikki Toyama-Szeto. Nikki shares what it looks like to lead a justice organization justly.
By Kristyn Komarnicki
In April, my husband and I accepted an offer for our home of 25 years. Over the next 60 days, we spent almost every free hour going through what we’d collected over that quarter century.
By Caleb Campbell
This is excerpted from Disarming Leviathan: Loving Your Christian Nationalist Neighbor, by Caleb Campbell.
For me one of the most painful revelations of 2020 was that many within the American church were not placing their ultimate hope in Jesus but were instead buying the false promises of Christian nationalism—a movement that calls Christian followers to take government power at all costs to advance their preferred way of being in the world.
By Rick Barry and Shane Claiborne
Talking with God about how American politics can malform our hearts.
By Rick Barry
Season 6, Episode 6
This week, Nikki talks with Rick Barry, Executive Director of the Center for Christian Civics. Rick helps Christians think about what it looks like for their communities to show up in the public square, and in this episode he helps us to wrap our minds around what civic discipleship looks like and helps break down the variety of ways people understand “politics” today.
By Ron Sider
Season 6, Episode 5
July 27, 2024, will mark two years since Ron Sider, founder and President Emeritus of Christians for Social Action (originally Evangelicals for Social Action), passed away.
By Rick Barry and Lisa Rodriguez-Watson
Fifteen minutes of guided prayer covering a tragic feature of American political life.
By Jasmin Shupper
Season 6, Episode 4
This week, Nikki interviews Jasmin Shupper, the CEO and Founder of the Greenline Housing Foundation, a non-profit organization that aims to close the racial wealth and homeownership gaps and reverse the effects of systemic racism in housing by granting access to home ownership for people of color.
By Gabrielle Clowdus
Season 6, Episode 3
This week on 20 Minute Takes, Nikki chats with Dr. Gabrielle Clowdus of Settled, an organization that addresses long-term homelessness through research-based holistic and communal approaches.
By Nishan de Mel
Season 6, Episode 2
This week on 20 Minute Takes, we hear from economist Nishan de Mel. In front of a live audience, Nishan talks about how he and his organization, Verité Research, attempted to tackle corruption in governance in Sri Lanka, as well as what it means to participate in inherently unjust structures with an eye toward truth and transformation.
By Ruth Padilla DeBorst
Season 6, Episode 1
Welcome to Season 6!
In this episode, Nikki talks with Dr. Ruth Padilla DeBorst of the International Fellowship for Mission as Transformation (INFEMIT). They discuss how a global, interdenominational, and intergenerational community like INFEMIT is helping Christians all over the world think about how the church is showing up in their own contexts, as well as the upcoming Stott-Bediako Forum coming up in Medellín, Colombia, this July 15-17.
By Darren Calhoun
Juneteenth and Pride are connected by the pursuit of freedom, justice, and human dignity. Pride Is a protest asserting our right to exist and thrive. Juneteenth is a reminder of delayed justice and the long journey toward liberation.
By Andre Henry
At some point, people who say that they want justice have to be clear about what that actually looks like
By Mark Labberton, Nikki Toyama-Szeto, and Laurel Bunker
In early 2021, CSA Executive Director Nikki Toyama-Szeto and Fuller Theological Seminary president Mark Labberton spoke on the changing state of American evangelicalism. This presentation was part of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities’ online conference, “Faithful Leadership: Race, Politics & Evangelicalism in America.”
“Evangelicalism is paddling in the shallows … but Jesus invites us into the deep.”
Nikki opens her portion of the presentation with a meditation exercise that offers tremendous calm ahead of a fraught conversation.