Natasha Crain's Blog, page 8

How to Build a More Discerning, Less Naïve, and Better Culturally Engaged Church

In my last article, Christian Naivety is Harming the Church’s Engagement with Today’s Culture, I identified four ways that I’ve seen many Christians respond with naivety to calls for discernment in today’s world. At the end, I asked, “How do we fix this?” and said my answer would be the subject of my next article. This is that article. Since this is a follow up, please be sure to read my last post before this one for context.

Let me start by saying that the

title of this article is a rathe...

Christian Naivety is Harming the Church’s Engagement with Today’s Culture

I had no idea my last article, “5 Ways Christians are Getting Swept into a Secular Worldview in This Culture Moment,” would resonate with so many—it’s been liked and shared over 250,000 times to date (!). Although I no longer leave comments open on my site (I just don’t have the time to moderate and respond), I had the opportunity to observe a flurry of conversation threads on social media related to what I had written. Those conversation threads generated all kinds of ideas for future artic...

5 Ways Christians are Getting Swept into a Secular Worldview in This Cultural Moment

So much has been said and is being said about the tragic death of George Floyd that it almost feels excessive to add to the conversation. But to continue on with the “regularly scheduled blog posts” without addressing such a significant event would also be bizarre.

Many people have already written on how tragic and unjust Floyd’s death was. This post is not here to elaborate on that. If you’re reading this, I take it that you already agree. Many people are also addressing how unbiblical r...

How to Disagree Better about COVID-19, Conspiracy Theories, and Pretty Much Everything Else in Life

Aside from feeling the fatigue of quarantine in general, I am feeling the fatigue of people arguing about the quarantine. This includes Christians fighting with other Christians, Christians fighting with non-believers, and non-believers fighting with non-believers.

If you spend any time on social media, you know exactly what
Im talking about.

Our culture has largely lost the ability to disagree well. Ive experienced this for years when discussing worldview issues with both...

8 Things Christian Parents Should Consider Before Sending Kids Back to Public or Private School This Fall

This is going to be a very long post, so Ill cut to
the chase:

My husband and I decided back in January that we were going to begin homeschooling our twins for middle school this fallweeks before we had any idea that the coronavirus existed and that it would lead to everyone schooling at home this spring!

I guess we were unintentionally ahead of the curve on this. (Get it? Curve? Coronavirus? Hello?)

This decision was the product of a long period of consideration, during which I did...

One of the Greatest Gifts to Give Your Kids This Easter is a Sense of Hopelessness

A few months ago, I experienced a moment of personal
insight that deeply transformed how I think about faith. It happened while
debating whether or not to go to the grocery store.

It was mid-morning on a weekday. The kids were at school and I was at my computer working. I hadnt had time for breakfast that day and my stomach started rumbling. As my thoughts turned to food, I realized I needed to go grocery shopping. I actually enjoy the grocery store, so I started thinking about all the...

Talking with Your Kids about Jesus is NOW AVAILABLE!

People sometimes say that the day a book is released is like giving birth for an author. I used to think that was a cheesy analogy, but I have to admit there's a lot of truth to it. I've poured an enormous amount of work into Talking with Your Kids about Jesus: 30 Conversations Every Christian Parent Must Have over the last two years, and TODAY is the day it is finally released into the world! It's a thrill to share it with you!

Admittedly, the pandemic we've been experiencing for the...

God Uses Our Dreams and Disasters to Accomplish the Impossible

If you've read my books or followed my blog for a while, you know that the focus of my writing is to equip parents with an understanding of how to make a case for and defend the truth of Christianity so they can pass that knowledge on to their kids. This is my passion and focus, but it certainly doesn't represent ALL that kids need to know and experience in their faith.

It’s not enough to KNOW what’s true if that truth doesn’t transform us.

For years now, I've followed blogger and author...

Why Secular Culture, Progressive Christians, and Traditional Christians Disagree on What It Means to Love Others

For Valentine’s Day last year, my husband and I exchanged
notes with fifteen affirming words that describe one another. One of the words
my husband chose for me included a qualification: “Adventurous (unless there’s
danger).” When I first saw it, I thought he was joking. How adventurous can a
person be if there’s no danger? But he defended his questionable choice of a
compliment by clarifying that he loves how I embrace the idea of adventure, even if I eventually panic when doing...

Here’s the Key to Ongoing Deep Faith Conversations with Your Kids

[The following post is the Introduction from my new book, Talking with Your Kids about Jesus! It releases next month and is available for preorder now.]

I was scrolling through Facebook recently when I saw an
article that stopped me in my tracks: “5 Things People with Tidy Homes Don’t
Do.”

Oh boy. This is one I need to read. Immediately.

I am constantly fighting a messy house. Whenever I take my kids to a friend’s home, I’m amazed at how relatively clean it is. How do they not have...