By Amy Butler It has of late become the newest and most frequent lament of the oppressed in my household: “The struggle is real!” If I were to say to one of my teenage kids: “Please put your dirty dishes…
Back from the bridge
By Amy Butler Almost 50 years ago her world fell apart. Teenage angst plus serious, debilitating mental illness led her one biting winter day to the rail of a bridge, one leg over the side, ready to say goodbye to…
A safe space to be vulnerable
By Amy Butler Last week I watched a TED talk by University of Houston social work professor Brené Brown. In the video, Brown talks about her research on human connection. We all crave human connection, she says, but the shame…
Jackie Robinson’s lesson for the church
By Amy Butler Last weekend I saw “42,” the new film about the life of baseball legend Jackie Robinson. This fact is notable, as I don’t often get to the movies in general and also I am not a big…
A letter to the SBNR
By Amy Butler Dear Spiritual But Not Religious Friends, Are your ears burning? You’re causing quite a stir in my circles these days. Many of my colleagues claim you are the biggest challenge of the church today. You probably didn’t…
When the truth shouts
By Amy Butler In a fit of good intention I recently purchased a personal scale — the kind used to measure body weight. Truth is that I have never owned such a thing before. In my estimation, there’s little call…
Resurrection hurts
By Amy Butler In what must have been a slow news week, I saw a story last week about those iconic Easter candy chicks, Peeps. It seems that about 5 million Peeps are made each day in the months leading…
Preaching when you have nothing to say
By Amy Butler One mark of a healthy church is a community in which people regularly and intentionally listen to each other. In Baptist polity, we might even say this quality of hearing each other is critical for us to…
Knowing what not to say
By Amy Butler Those who don’t really care about the suffering of others may be excused. But anybody who feels they must comment from the sidelines on an occasion of human pain ought to have some training in pastoral care….
The discipline of failure
By Amy Butler It’s Lent again, and that means everybody is talking about what they are giving up. Many of us have been gearing up to make the most of the liturgical season, so much so that I felt a…
Dunking in the dark
By Amy Butler Millions of dollars are spent every year to purchase advertising time during the most-watched sports event of the entire year. I am no advertising expert, but I imagine that marketing executives work long and hard to produce…
A hopeful but scary future
By Amy Butler Like a lot of people I know, I am up at night sometimes thinking, wondering and worrying about the viability of the church as we know it. I’m not worried about the gospel. I’m pretty sure the…