Becoming God's Family by Carmen Joy Imes
Carmen Joy Imes’s Becoming God’s Family: Why the Church Still Matters (IVP Academic, October 28, 2025) addresses contemporary disillusionment with the church by presenting a biblical theology of God’s presence among His people. Completing a trilogy that began with Bearing God’s Name (covenant and law) and Being God’s Image (creation and identity), this volume explores the church as God’s chosen family, intergenerational and global, called to embody His mission despite scandals, polarization, and deconstruction. With endorsements from leading scholars and pastors, a foreword by Esau McCaulley, and resources like discussion questions and BibleProject links, Imes provides scholarly depth and pastoral care. Drawing from the full sweep of Scripture—from Abraham’s household to the church as the Spirit’s temple—she argues that God’s presence has always been tied to a gathered community, not isolated individuals, and that remaining in the church is central to Christian life and God’s redemptive plan.
A Biblical Symbology of Clowns: The Clown on My Wall
Clowns embody contradiction and inversion, acting as cultural symbols that expose the boundaries and hypocrisies of human systems through humor, discomfort, and absurdity. Though often feared, their purpose is not malevolence but revelatory: clowns function as sacred fools or prophetic tricksters who disrupt social order to reveal truth. Historically rooted in the role of the jester, the clown occupies the space between order and chaos, revealing hidden realities and confronting tyranny by returning overextended structures to a state of potential. The clown’s unsettling presence reminds us of the wilderness beyond the city—unformed but filled with potential—where God's dominion is meant to extend. Unlike the Nephilim, who represent fallen power structures rooted in underworld tyranny, clowns challenge tyrannical structures by embodying disorder in the hopes of divine renewal. They are not evil but disruptive, meant to provoke discomfort that leads to growth in wisdom, endurance, and insight. In a world of inverted values, the clown is the only archetype meant to turn things right-side up.