In Stephen King’s ‘The Outsider,’ the light’s winning — barely

In Stephen King’s latest, “The Outsider,” out now, a police detective and a forensic private investigator track down a shapeshifting boogeyman who likes to frame people for sadistic crimes. A local baseball coach is accused of violently assaulting and murdering a young boy. There’s equal proof of both that he definitely wasn’t at the crime […]

I’m made In the Image of God and so are You

This post originally appeared at the now-archived bedlammag.com on October 25, 2015. Go check them out if you want to read some more great thoughts on faith, life and culture. Image found here. I have a new baby cousin and he’s 23 years younger than I am. And although he’s healthy now, the circumstances surrounding […]

What Growing Up As a Military Brat Taught Me About God and Faith

This post originally appeared at the now-archived bedlammag.com on September 28, 2015. Go check them out if you want to read some more great thoughts on faith, life and culture. Image found here. To live as a military brat is to experience constant renewal. Every few years, there’s the opportunity to move to another place and […]

Pope’s words are personal, not political

As a part of my job at the Victoria Advocate, I am on the editorial board, where I, among others, write bimonthly editorials which become the voice of the paper. This editorial originally appeared in the Sept. 9, 2015 edition of the Victoria Advocate. Photo found here. Last Tuesday, in the spirit of the Catholic […]

Cowboy church caters to Western culture

By Jake Harris | Published Saturday, May 2, 2015 This article was originally published in the May 2 edition of The Wise County Messenger. Photos by Jimmy Alford. The typical church-going environment on a Sunday morning in the South revolves around a pulpit, pews and a sanctuary in a church building. The Wise County Cowboy Church is […]

Back in the saddle: Recovered from a brutal accident, rider sets sights on Oklahoma competition

This article originally appeared in the January 31, 2015 edition of the Wise County Messenger. Ask any parent who lets their child participate in sports, and they’ll tell you their biggest fear is seeing their child get hurt. For Diran and Kellie Lancaster of Bowie, that fear became a reality last year when their 12-year-old […]

Community of forgiveness: Ministry looks to faith to heal addiction

By Jake Harris | Published Wednesday, January 14, 2015 This article was originally published in the Jan. 14, 2015 edition of the Wise County Messenger. Photos by Joe Duty. On Monday and Thursday nights at the Pizza Hut off U.S. 380 in Bridgeport, a group of people meets in the restaurant’s private dining room. Most […]

Working on Christmas

It’s easy to get discouraged around the holidays, especially this year. With all the riots, protests and unrest going on in America this Advent season, at times it has been hard for me to proclaim “Joy to the World, the Lord is come.” This Christmas marked a first for me— today, I’m celebrating the birth […]

Fort Worth bar church a hit with college students

This article was originally published at the109.org on Sept. 1, 2014. Photo by Karen Gavis. Each Sunday at 10:30 a.m., college students file into the Aardvark bar on Berry Street. But they aren’t there to drink. They’re going to church. Impact, the college ministry of Christ Chapel Bible Church, started meeting in the popular TCU watering […]

Pope Francis’s call to serve already being acted out in 109 churches

This article was a homework assignment for my Public Affairs Reporting class at TCU during the spring of 2014. It was never published on the109.org, TCU’s community news site, but this is the final story. Recently, CNN Vatican correspondent John Allen Jr. visited TCU’s campus to speak about Pope Francis and his call to serve […]