Nate Pyle's Blog

Jesus, the Stranger Who Needs a Room

A royal child is born. But where you’d expect a royal welcoming, you find a no fanfare. There were no crowds waiting outside of a castle for the birth announcement. In the crowded town of Bethlehem, no one was sacrificing their place in a warm house to make space for an honored guest. There is no room for this child. And so, surrounded by sheep, cows, and donkeys the King of Kings was laid into a feeding trough filled with hay.

One Bible commentator writes, “What the inhabitants of Bethlehem...

The Way of the Dragon or The Way of the Lamb: A Critique of Power

Let me make a confession. Deep within me there is a desire for success and recognition. For much of my life, I was blind to it. But others noticed my longing for status. It lurked behind my actions, motivating me in ways I couldn’t see. I didn’t see how I would position myself to be near the most influential person in the room. I was unconscious of how I manipulated situations and people to make myself look better.

In the past, I would have written off my ambition as an eagerness to use my g...

On Being Disturbed by Christmas

Photo Credit: acinta lluch valero

Theologian Stanley Hauerwas was once asked what he thought was the greatest threat to American Christianity. His answer was surprising. It wasn’t atheism. It wasn’t radical Islam. It wasn’t civil religion or consumerism. No, Hauerwas stated that what threatens to undo American Christianity is sentimentality.

Sentimentality is a kind of self-indulgent emotionalism. Oscar Wilde wrote that “a sentimentalist is one who desires to have the luxury of an emotion wi...

Pastoral Work is Prophetic Work (or I don’t know how to do this)

Like most of America, last Tuesday night I sat in my living room and watched the election results roll in. Long before it was clear who was going to win, one thing was obvious: America is deeply divided. Not between inconsequential preferences like Coke or Pepsi (Pepsi), burgers or hotdogs (burgers, with bacon), but along the critical fault lines of rich and poor, white and non-white, educated and educated, young and old, white-collar and blue-collar, male and female, urban and rural. Pick y...

Make Men Great (not Make Men Great Again)

In many ways, Trump is a distilled version of America’s most prized masculine traits. Wealthy? Check. Self-made? So he says. Stands tall in the face of criticism? To a fault. Donald Trump, consciously or unconsciously, is posturing himself as the quintessential American man.

It’s no wonder, then, that he polls the strongest among men. He speaks their language. He’s addressing their concerns.Those supporting the brash candidate are more likely to feel that American society punishes men for ac...

What Locker Room Talk Reveals About Masculinity in America

In the last presidential debate, Donald Trump weakly apologized for obscene remarks he made in 2005. Referencing his celebrity, Trump told a younger man, Billy Bush, that he, Trump, can just grab a woman in her most intimate region. “When you’re a star,” Trump said, “they let you do it.” During the debate, Trump brushed these comments aside as “locker room talk.” That was, in no uncertain terms, a veiled attempt to normalize his vulgar words by implying that all men do it.

No, all men don’t...

A Sermon about Politics and the Church

Unless you have been living under a rock you know that we in America are experiencing what some call “polarization.” Want to destroy a pleasant dinner party? Mention two names: Trump and Clinton. Those names are absolute gasoline. As we near the election, it’s only going to get worse.

For the last number of elections, every election is the most important election in history. Every election is our last chance to save America. Every election has apocalyptic warnings surrounding it. Frankly, it...

What Christians Can Learn from Colin Kaepernick

I’m reminded of a story from the first part of the book of Daniel. King Nebuchadnezzar erected a statue of gold 90 feet high and nine feet wide on the plain of Dura in the province Babylon. Scholars are unsure of what the statue was or what it represented, but many contend it was a monument to the greatness of Babylon.

Anyone who attended Sunday school as a kid knows the story that follows. King Nebuchadnezzar issued a decree that at the sound of the musical instruments everyone was to immed...

Why The Gospel Coalition Needs Accountability (and why it doesn’t have any)

The Gospel Coalition has once again lit up the Christian internet with an unfortunate article with an even more unfortunate title. While the intentions are obvious and pure enough, the post needed the heavy hand of an editor tuned in to the conversation of race in America.What concerns me is the established pattern of likely response from The Gospel Coalition:

Silence.

History tells us thatThe Gospel Coalition isn’t interested in taking responsibility for how their content impacts readers be...

What We Can Expect to Hear from the Gospel Coalition

The Gospel Coalition has once again lit up the Christian internet with an unfortunate article with an even more unfortunate title. While the intentions are obvious and pure enough, the post needed the heavy hand of an editor tuned in to the conversation of race in America.

What concerns me is the likely response we can expect from The Gospel Coalition: silence.

It is obviousThe Gospel Coalition isn’t been listening and isn’t interested in taking responsibility for how their content impacts t...