“To be alive is to be addicted, and to be alive and addicted is to stand in need of grace.” Gerald May For reasons that go back a few generations, I am interested in addiction. I have studied it, and…
The heroics of helping others
Who prefers discomfort to comfort? Not me, but sometimes, it’s necessary. I favor tasty food, sweet smells, a good night’s rest (plus an afternoon nap, if possible). I enjoy warm, moderate temperatures, not too cold, not too hot. I like…
Does your congregation need a ‘church search committee’?
By Marion Aldridge What kind of congregation do you want? That query precedes the probe into the kind of person you want as pastor. For 15 years I trained churches and their pastor search committees. In recent months, I have…
Does your congregation need a church search committee?
What kind of congregation do you want? That query precedes the probe into the kind of person you want as pastor? For 15 years I trained churches and their “Pastor Search Committees.” In recent months, I have begun to wonder whether…
Learning the unlearning curve
Leaving the familiar is critical to travel and to life. Doing something new is sometimes impossible unless you move past what is traditional, usual. An important part of human growth is detaching from what has been important previously. A 20…
Desperate to avoid (dealing with) death
Recently I spoke at a conference of Retirement Community Chaplains. My thesis was that people who deal with the vicissitudes of life best tend to deal best with the reality of death. There are 72-year-old men and women who seem to…
Churchcraft
By Marion Aldridge I have coined a new word: Churchcraft. What I mean by Churchcraft is an individual’s ability to say and do the things that will help to build the organized church. My observation is that a lack of…
Churchcraft
I have coined a new word: Churchcraft. What I mean by Churchcraft is an individual’s ability to say and do the things that will help to build the organized church. My observation is that a lack of Churchcraft is the…
Opinions!
Baptists are an opinionated crowd. We were taught to be that way. Preachers invest a lot of time and energy saying we ought to do this and that we should not or must not do that. If you grew up…