Mid-year 'Good Stuff' roundup (part 3)

It's summer, I'm out of town, and I'm sifting through my favorite Substack articles (so far) this year

Jul 17, 2026

I’m off on retreat. Technology-free.

So I thought this would be a good time to look back on my favorite ‘Good Stuff’ articles so far this year, curate them for you, and set them to publish while I’m gone.

So that’s what I’m doing!

These next few Fridays - July 3, 10, and 17, I’m sharing 10 of my favorite articles from past ‘Good Stuff’ Friday blogs.

I can’t tell you how hard it is to narrow them down to just 30 articles (plus one of my own each week). There is SO much good writing about the church, life with God, and how to live a meaningful life. And running. And other random things.

It will be hard to miss a bunch of writing during these weeks, too - I’ll mostly be off-line. But I’ll spend some extra time working on it when I come back.

In the meantime, here’s the last 10 mid-year articles, from May 8 - June 26, 2026. I sure enjoyed reading them again…

Can evangelicals become more sacramental as sacramentalists become more evangelical?

by Chris Nye

‘All of these evangelicals encourage me as they are growing in an awareness of the richness of tradition—that the way we experience God is not in spite of our faith’s history, but in rich participation with it.’

A Too Small Life

by Pastor Sierra Ward

’For me, this is the most challenging part of loving my neighbor. When I bemoaned to husband how difficult this is, to watch in grief when lives crumble and neglect is rampant, when choices shatter surrounding lives that have no control, he said, wisely, “With deep love, comes deep suffering.”’

Beloved Authenticity

by Tyler Hill

‘That’s not self-centered spirituality. That’s deeply Christian spirituality. Sanctity, for Merton, was not about becoming someone else. It was about becoming who you already are in God.’

Do You Believe This? The Crisis of Ecclesiology in Mainline Protestantism

by Dennis Sanders

‘Now I don’t know the reasons this congregation closed. But as I see more and more mainline Protestant congregations close with what seems to be a shrug, when I see talk about how the church’s assets can be used to help non-profits, I am left wondering: do mainline Protestants even know what the local church is for? Do we care about ecclesiology?’

In Praise of Small Churches

by Annie Neely

‘These churches rarely become conference examples or ministry case studies. Most people outside their communities will never know they exist.

But they are faithful.

That matters more than we sometimes allow ourselves to admit.’

What Am I Counting?

by Arianne Rice

‘… being a priest is integral to who I am. It’s in my bones. I marvel at the life that choice and calling created. The people, places, experiences, goodbyes, and beginnings this vocation has given me. I treasure this number and want it to grow and grow. I still have so much more I want to give and learn..’

Five Real Things In No Particular Order

by Misha Sanders

‘I grew up surrounded by the manliest of manly men who had absolutely no qualms about weeping openly, hugging each other, spending entire worship services with their arms around each other or holding hands, and sharing with each other the burdens and joys in their hearts.

Real talk, not just about cars and titanium fishing rods.’

The Hidden Danger in Becoming Orthodox That Is Rarely Talked About

by Kenneth B.

‘It is not uncommon to find a newcomer who has read more theology in six months than many lifelong Orthodox Christians. Yet there is often an unspoken assumption beneath all this activity, that Christianity is something to be figured out, rather than something to be lived.’

The Hypothetical as Apocalyptic

by Gino Curcuruto

‘In a sense, we need one another to keep us violent or nonviolent. The social imaginary is shaped collectively. It was created and therefore can be recreated.’