By Amy Butler Opportunities for debate and discussion have skyrocketed in the wake of this week’s news reports of the death of Osama bin Laden. Right after the news broke, it seemed to me that everyone on Facebook had a…

By Amy Butler The weather is finally beginning to be a little balmy around here, enough for me and most of my neighbors to spend evenings with our windows open. The other night happened to be the first night of…

By Amy Butler Perhaps this only occurs in pastors’ households, but there has been a lot of recent conversation in my house about giving things up for Lent: What one considered giving up for Lent, what one decided to give…

By Amy Butler I have a very complicated relationship with the GPS satellite navigation system in my car. On the one hand, I find that the GPS is becoming more and more critical to my sanity, if not my very…

By Amy Butler I wish I could say that deep theological reflection spurred my action, but I’ll go ahead and admit that Matt Damon probably had more to do with my inspiration to head to the movie theater to see…

By Amy Butler A church member picked me up at the airport when I returned from a last-minute trip to an unexpected family funeral. She was holding an armful of tulips for me. “Wow! I love tulips,” I told her,…

By Amy Butler Reference my last column on desperation and you will recognize what it is that church leadership experts recommend for those of us crazy enough to take on the challenge of trying to help churches move into the…

By Amy Butler There are many important things we learn when we attend seminary, and there are many important things we never learn until long after we leave those hallowed halls. One important axiom of ministry I learned long after…

By Amy Butler I’ve been thinking a lot this week about the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. That day I was working in the office at my previous church, in New Orleans, when the news first broke about the bombing…