Bo Sanders: Public Theology

You are invited to join me in a daily reading / reflection this Advent season.

“For Such A Time As This: An Emergency Devotional” by Hanna Reichel is available in paperback, Kindle, and Audible. I will be reading it and then posting a reflection on some aspect of it every morning from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

I have been reading the same two books every December for the past 15 years and so I wanted to change it up this year. Here is the reading / posting schedule if you would like to follow along:

Advent 2025 Reading Schedule

Date Chapter

Nov 26 1

Nov 27 2

Nov 28 3

Nov 29 4

Nov 30 5

Dec 1 6

Dec 2 7

Dec 3 8

Dec 4 9

Dec 5 10

Dec 6 11

Dec 7 12

Dec 8 13

Dec 9 14

Dec 10 15

Dec 11 16

Dec 12 17

Dec 13 18

Dec 14 19

Dec 15 20

Dec 16 21

Dec 17 22

Dec 18 23

Dec 19 24

Dec 20 25

Dec 21 26

Dec 22 27

Dec 23 28

Dec 24 End

In case that isn’t what you are looking for, I will also be going through “Shadow & Light: A Journey Into Advent” by Tsh Oxenreider with my congregation. It starts this Sunday (the first of Advent) and is laid out in a classic and easy to follow format. It comes is a beautiful hardcover or an audio book.

I also wanted to mention that Wipf &Stock publishers is offering the book that I wrote with Randy Woodley “Decolonizing Evangelicalism” at 50% off with the code CONFSHIP and free Media Mail shipping.

I hope that you will join me in the Advent conversation – this season is a chance to change up our routines, to get out of a rut, and to stimulate new thoughts ahead of the new year.

We live in a state where the Legislature is considering a bill to make Bible reading mandatory in public school. I know that there are lots of concerns about this endeavor and the critics have been quite vocal in their opposition.

 My question is, if they do pass this legislation and require Bible verses to be read by students each day: what Bible verses should be on the list.

 Let’s admit that there are lots of Bible passages that are questionable for younger audiences and there are also some ‘texts of terror’ that we would want to avoid for fear that could (and have) traumatized people and caused real harm. We can make a list of those later.

 My hope is to build a catalogue of passages – SO THAT – should the legislation pass, we could present a ready to go list of constructive suggestions about the verses in the Bible that WOULD be good for our young people to engage.

• What is your favorite Bible verse?
• What passage do you find edifying?
• Where have you found inspiration or motivation?
• What are the ‘foundational’ passages that come to mind?

 Let us know and we will add them to the growing list.

This morning I will be chatting with Tripp about preaching through the book of Daniel with the theme of resilience and resistance. You can tune into the live stream here:

YouTube Live Link

It is going to be interesting because I have not preached from the book of Daniel in almost 20 years when I was an Evangelical and I truly believed in biblical prophecy.

A lot has changed since then – including the hermeneutical lens through which I read scripture and specifically how it relates to dating the writing of the text. I had also never even heard of the concept of ‘Liturature of the Opressed’.

If you are interested, you can see the first 4 sermons in the series on the Twin Falls UMC YouTube channel.

They are the first 5 videos that come up here: Daniel Sermon Series 1-4

Tune in (or watch the recording later) and let me know what you think.