Dying Empty (Holy Week Series)
By Avril Z. Speaks
(Editor’s note: As we enter Holy Week, we’re holding space for the parts of the story that feel unresolved — the places where loss lingers and hope is hard to see.
This Online Articles area (formerly our Library) gathers reflections, op-eds, and essays that engage the pressing questions of faith, justice, and public life. Here, you’ll find hundreds of thoughtful and engaging pieces from scholars, practitioners, and everyday Christians — leaders and writers who bring fresh insight and faithful imagination. These articles are meant to spark deeper discipleship, fuel courageous action, and equip the church to embody the gospel in a complex world. We invite you to explore, learn, and join the ongoing conversation toward a fuller expression of Christian faithfulness and a more just society.
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By Avril Z. Speaks
(Editor’s note: As we enter Holy Week, we’re holding space for the parts of the story that feel unresolved — the places where loss lingers and hope is hard to see.
By Anonymous
(Editor’s note: We are publishing this reflection anonymously out of concern for the safety and well-being of the author and their family. As the author describes, immigrants and their loved ones are increasingly vulnerable to surveillance, retaliation, and denial of legal processes simply for speaking critically about U.S.
By Scott Bessenecker
It’s time for America to return the Statue of Liberty.
This “Mother of Exiles,” who calls to the tired, poor, huddled masses, has become a promise that no longer reflects reality.
By Josh Olds
On a sweltering Alabama summer night in July 1993, a man named Gregory “New York” Huguley was forced into a car, driven to an abandoned Little League field, tied to a bench, doused in gasoline, and set on fire.
By David Swanson
(Editor’s Note: January 21, 2026 | This essay was written prior to the most recent events unfolding in Minneapolis and other cities and is not intended as commentary on any single protest, incident, or tactic.
By Liz Cooledge Jenkins
By the rivers of Babylon—there we sat down, and there we wept when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our harps. For there our captors asked us for songs, and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” -Psalm 137:1-3 (NRSVUE)
How different is this biblical song from the upbeat worship music we hear sung every Sunday morning in most U.S.
By Caleb Hui and Sam Chao
(Editor’s Note: As detention and deportation escalate, families like Yeonsoo Go’s reveal the human cost of current immigration policies. Here, Caleb and Sam examine why the Christian practice of sanctuary matters now — and how churches have historically responded when the state became the threat.
(A Storytellers Collective Feature)
In neighborhoods across the United States, cycles of violence, incarceration, and disinvestment have shaped generations. Yet within these same communities, there are also stories of resilience — stories that challenge us to imagine what becomes possible when people refuse to be defined by their worst act, and when communities commit themselves to the long work of repair and flourishing.
By David Swanson
I grabbed my phone and texted, “What do you think about the news from Venezuela?” It was Sunday morning, just hours after the U.S. launched a military strike in Caracas, the country’s capital and location of President Nicolás Maduro’s compound.
By Ben Norquist
We are told to reach for personal resets in January. We resolve to exercise more often, cultivate better habits, pray more faithfully, and so on. This annual ritual is predicated on the idea that we have the power to become better versions of ourselves through personal effort.
By Rohadi Nagassar
John the Baptist spots his cousin off in the desert distance and beckons with excitement:
“Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)
John’s words are worthy of our attention, because he articulates the future vocation of Jesus in a single sentence — a vocation that has been lost to many contemporary Christians, particularly those who reduce salvation to merely “personal” experience.
By Amy Knorr
I can still feel my eyebrows arch when I think about the words my mother spoke to me during a rough patch as a (very) young adult.
“Amy, I don’t want you to suffer, but that is actually not my prayer for you.”
I’m pretty sure my response was something like, “Thanks a lot, Mom.” (Insert all the sarcasm of a late teenager.)
But she followed that declaration with words that have anchored me in every hard season since:
“I know you will walk through hard things.
By Daniel Yang
As Senior Director of Global Mission and Church Movements at World Relief, I work to equip churches and Christian organizations to embody the biblical mandate to welcome vulnerable immigrants and refugees. For years, I’ve seen congregations across the U.S.
By Laurie Nichols
Every powerful system has a way of telling its own story.
It tells us who matters, who gets to speak, and who should stay quiet. It rewards certainty and punishes nuance.
By Mark Glanville
Christmas Day is a celebration that Herod must not hear of — it is a whispered celebration. What would it feel like to celebrate Christmas with a whisper?
The dead of winter seems to welcome whispers.
Interviewed By CSA Staff
In a world shaped by invisible systems of control and conformity, the call to worship often looks like productivity, power, and performance. But what happens when we reclaim liturgy—not just as ritual, but as resistance?
By Christine Sine
I am currently in Australia visiting my family.
I love coming at this time of year — not only because it gives me a break from Seattle’s cold, rainy autumn, but also because November usually sits just before the Christmas rush.