To those who would say that the Church is an antiquated and dying institution that continues to cling to the myth of an all powerful God: Mission trips, Sunday nights, summer beach campouts, and food fights in the fellowship hall were all part of my church experience. We got into our fair share of trouble. … Continue reading “A Letter to Anti-Church Prognosticators: Just Cut the Crap Already!”
Category: Invitation
Hope for Redemption?
One of the books I’ve been reading for my D.Min. program is by Mary McClintock Fulkerson called Places of Redemption: Theology for a Worldly Church. She follows a southern multiracial congregation through its trials and triumphs as they seek to be multicultural. Her book starts with this small United Methodist congregation as a dying white … Continue reading “Hope for Redemption?”
A Church in Decline: Balancing the Need to Teach with the Need to Listen
I just read a blogpost by Carol Howard Merritt entitled “Generational Roadblocks: What sort of obstacles keeps a new generation of people away?” Carol is an amazingly prolific and prophetic writer about contemporary themes of church and young people (she mostly blogs for the Christian Century and Huffington Post). In this latest she outlines a … Continue reading “A Church in Decline: Balancing the Need to Teach with the Need to Listen”
A truly thanks giving moment…
Tomorrow is the day we give thanks—as though we don’t have to give thanks any other day. Tomorrow, our entire nation gathers with family and friends to feast and fellowship—except for those who do not have jobs, who are living on the streets, who have no family, or are otherwise struggling with personal issues they … Continue reading “A truly thanks giving moment…”
The God Who Leaves Room for ‘No’
In Matthew 19, a young man approaches Jesus and asks what he must do to have eternal life (see also Mark 10 and Luke 18). Jesus responds with a list of some of Moses’ commandments from Exodus and Deuteronomy. But the young man persists and tells Jesus he has done all that, and then asks … Continue reading “The God Who Leaves Room for ‘No’”