Plans have carefully been crafted for Lenten observances and grand Easter plans. And then. And then there is a death in your congregation that touches everyone. Or a tragedy in your town that renders all the plans to be nothing more than an afterthought. Or a global anguish that...
Lent began two weeks ago and unless your church chose to give up meetings for Lent (which, by the way, is a wonderful idea and a nurturing spiritual discipline!), you will find yourself in a church board meeting or two during the Lenten Season. What...
Last week, we considered the motivating – and risky – role anger can play in a quest for social justice. In her essay, “Getting Angry Can Be a Good Thing,” Cecilia Muñoz suggests that “Anger has a way . . . of hollowing out your...
Mention anger in church and most people will say something like “well, Jesus did overturn the tables in the temple, right?” Almost as reactive balance, someone else will respond with “But isn’t anger one of the seven deadly sins?” We wonder if there are other ways...
We hear a lot of statistics these days about the growing number of people who are religiously unaffiliated. But, thanks to the Pew Research Center, we also get stats from time to time on people who are religiously active. For instance, one recent Pew research study...
In a Bible full of lists, the list of the fruits of the spirit in Galatians 5 is among the most inspiring and aspirational: … the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against...
One of the most unfortunately trivialized texts is Luke 10:38-42: 38 Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. 39 She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet...
In the fourth chapter of Mark’s Gospel, Jesus tells a parable: Again Jesus began to teach beside the sea. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the sea and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the...
Luke 17:11-19: 11 On the way to Jerusalem Jesus[a] was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he entered a village, ten lepers[b] approached him. Keeping their distance, 13 they called out, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” 14 When he saw them, he said to them, “Go and show yourselves...