God is Love, Not a Slave Lord
Despite what Paul says, I don’t think God desires us to be slaves of God.
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Hey there, my name is
Randy Greene.
I’m a writer, a creative, a website designer, and a digital marketing strategist. My life and work are at the intersections of Christianity, antiviolence, feminism, antiracism, and compassion. I love words and pictures and all forms of art and creativity.
Articles
God is Love, Not a Slave Lord
Despite what Paul says, I don’t think God desires us to be slaves of God.Online Church, A Return to Embodied Faith
When people criticize the idea of online church, they often talk about how online worship services feel disembodied, disconnected from the physical experience of community. Is there another, better way for us to think about online church?#AllLivesMatter and Manifest Destiny
The words "Manifest Destiny" aren't just a couple of inspirational words put together by the White House to sound nice. It refers to a very specific ideology from our nation's history, and it's not one we should celebrate.My Journey as an Antiracist
This blog post is a confession as much as it is a reflection. I've learned a lot about antiracism, and I have a lot left to learn.
Stories & Poems
A Found Poem About Friendship Based on a ChatGPT Poem About Socks
When I asked ChatGPT to write a sonnet about socks, it did! And a surprisingly coherent one, too. But then I wanted to see if I could take what it created and turn it into something new.Piracy
A very short story about a man longing to return to his past.Self Portrait
A verse reflecting on myself and the things most important to me.The One I Have to Tell
I want to tell stories of majesty and grandeur, but it's far more important to me that my stories be honest, true, and those majestic stories aren't mine to share.
Article Series
- All
- It's My Right
- Living in Truth and Love
- On Masculinity
- The Online Church
Series: It's My Right
It’s My Right. (Part 1)
I know my rights. It is my right as an American to say whatever I want to say. I have freedom of speech, and I have the right to exercise it.Series: It's My Right
It’s My Right. (Part 2)
God's Word is very clear about how we Christians should live our lives, but we, as a culture, have become adept at setting these rules aside by either conveniently ignoring them or writing them off as metaphors or altruistic ideals.Series: On Masculinity
Imitation Masculinity
I remember several years ago the must-read book for Christian guys was John Eldredge's "Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul." The book presents men as unilaterally having an inner thirst for "masculinity" that needed to be quenched by "roughing it" in the woods, exerting our physical strength, and defending our women from their weaker natures. The entire time that I read it, I had to fight back questions about myself. I didn't feel drawn to any of these things that Eldredge said should be hardwired into my DNA - was I broken? was I missing something?Series: On Masculinity
Redefining Masculinity
Christians have bought into a simplistic, primitive caricature of what it means to be a man, and we've elevated it to the level of godliness. It’s like we believe that the closer we get to achieving this model of masculinity, the closer we get to God. But our identity needs to be found in something higher.Series: Living in Truth and Love
In Defense of Truth
In an age when reality is becoming gray, seeing the world in black-and-white is increasingly taboo. Stating your belief that something is necessarily wrong is a certain way to be labeled a hater, bigot, or worse. American society has become a place where we are almost unable to believe anything at all with conviction, but the gospel of Christ teaches us that we can — and should — rest in truth.Series: Living in Truth and Love
In Light of Love
Even greater than truth is the command to love our neighbors, but how do we show love to the people around us?Series: The Online Church
1. Why We Should Think About Online Churches
Since the beginning of the 2020 pandemic, many churches have begun streaming their worship services online. But what would it look like for us to actually engage our communities in online community? Is this even something we should be talking about?Series: The Online Church
2. The Promising Potential of Social Media
The emerging technologies of online connection are powerful tools. But to what extent does social media provide incredible opportunities, and to what extent does it hurt our real life communities?Series: The Online Church
3. Limitations and Dangers of Social Media
If you ask almost any social media user today, they will tell you that the incredible potential of social media is often not fully realized—sometimes as a result of the nature of the medium itself, and sometimes as a result of the way we use it. In this post, we will examine some of the difficult realities of social media in our society today.Series: The Online Church
4. Paul and the Church in Corinth
Paul's leadership and communication with the church in Corinth in the first century provides a basic framework that we can use to explore the application of an online church today.Series: The Online Church
5. Worship, Sacrament, and Conflict in the Corinthian Church
Let us consider how Paul structured worship and leadership in the Corinthian church, as well as how he handled conflict within the church body to maintain growth and faithfulness.Series: The Online Church
6. Harnessing the Potential of Online Church
How can we translate Paul's concept of the church into an online context? How can we match his understanding of community, mission, and service with the technological tools and resources we have available to us today?Series: The Online Church
7. Developing Online Leaders and Worship Practices
Church culture is dramatically different than what we see happening on social media, and members entering an online church for the first time will bring their assumptions about social media into this new context. How might we bring people into this posture of cruciformity and reconciliation, when that posture is so foreign to today’s online experiences?Series: The Online Church
8. Handling Conflict, Bodily Presence, and Gathering Together
Part of the challenges to doing church online is in actively managing conflict, protecting privacy, encouraging participation in local communities, and gather together in-person as a church body for sacraments and celebrations.Series: The Online Church
9. Weaving the Church into the Physical and the Digital
We, the body of Christ, cannot content ourselves to sit back and watch as these new media become the message without us; the world needs God’s story of hope and humanity to be woven into the fabric of its life, everywhere that life is found.