All Posts By

Jared Ayers

Essay

The Carol Sing in a Different December

“It doesn’t really feel like Christmas, Dad.” My daughter tugs sharply at my shirt to get my attention, and gestures dramatically down our street. She’s right. This Christmas is different. For her, it feels different because, after living the entirety…
Essay

The Pulpit Is the Prow

By Jared Ayers A few weeks ago, I pulled my worn, sand-scratched copy of Moby Dick off the shelf in the fiction section of my study. I first immersed myself in Melville’s whale of a novel several years ago, while…
Essay

I Will, and I Ask God to Help Me

I have vows on my mind. Today, I spent a bit of time working on a wedding service for a dear friend whose upcoming, COVID-19-altered ceremony I’ll officiate. At the center of the service, of course, are the vows that…
Essay

My Daughter’s Prayer for Friends

“Pray for friends, and fun.” The day before we drove 1100 miles to our new home and congregation in Palm Beach, Florida, my wife and I recorded a short video to say hello to our new community and invite them…
Essay

in praise of reading in a time of unrest

Now It’s Officially Summer Everyone has a certain moment for which the summer “officially” begins. For some, it’s when that last final exam of the academic year is taken or graded. For others, it’s the first trip out to the…
Essay

Pentecost: Making Christianity Weird Again

This past week, a friend pointed me to a fascinating interview with Tom Holland. Holland is a leading English author and historian who’s published several best-selling books and TV series with the BBC. He was being interviewed about his most…
Essay

May 5 & Resurrection Hope

This article will publish on May 6, but as I sit here writing, it’s May 5. May 5 is a solemn day on the Ayers family calendar. On May 5, 2001, I lurched out of my bed to answer the…
Essay

A Holy Saturday for the Church

I ’m reading the novel The Plague by Albert Camus at the moment. It’s set in French-Algerian Oran, and follows Dr. Bernard Rieux as he responds to a growing plague in his city. At the beginning of the book, rats…