Oh, the dilemmas of pastoral ministry. Here I sit, looking at a beautiful piece of art for Sunday’s order of worship, trying to determine whether to cover the nakedness of the man helped by the Good Samaritan.
When the Holy Spirit joined my Uber ride
This is not one of those preacher stories that ends with someone saying the sinner’s prayer and getting baptized. But redemption traveled with us that night as we talked about life, pain and hope.
Divisions over abortion and other life and death issues: the problem is not purple churches
When faith leaders lament the difficulty of keeping Republicans and Democrats together in the same church, they miss the bigger issue.
Racists don’t get to determine who’s a racist
Those of us who have the most to learn are the ones who seldom have been victims of racism ourselves, who think we know what racism means but in reality do not know the definition. What scares me is the seemingly vast number of Christians who know the definition and simply don’t care.
When a transwoman served me communion
To be presented the Body of Christ by a transwoman created a role reversal I had not anticipated. As a pastor, I am accustomed to being the one serving the elements. Today, I was the one who received. And in that moment, I was changed yet again.
How to live in perilous times: a pope and a priest’s contrasting responses to Hitler’s Final Solution
We, too, live in perilous times that will define us for all time. Will history remember us as protectors of ourselves, our institutions and our borders? Or as protectors of God’s children, as people who truly believe O’Flaherty’s motto: “God has no country.”
In America’s culture divide, the Golden Rule is no longer enough
It seems America’s cultural divide has reached such a bitter impasse that the Golden Rule no longer applies. We’ve short-circuited it by jumping to the conclusion that “others” are not like us enough for this sage wisdom to apply.
How to know if your church will be alive in 10 years
Only 8 percent of American churchgoers attend congregations of more than 1,000 in weekly attendance. Yet the churches attended by 8 percent of Christians are held up as the models for every other church to emulate in order not to die.
The Joseph story offers a model: on climate change, the ‘what-to-do’ matters more than the ‘why’
Christians, Jews and Muslims alike regard Joseph as a hero for taking seriously the vision and making a plan of action. Why can’t we see today’s climate scientists as the same kind of God-ordained forecasters?