By Scott Dickison I endured a bittersweet moment recently as I walked with my 2-year-old son through a critical rite of passage. We are, as Dickisons, devout (I use this term reverently and deliberately) fans of the Chicago Cubs. This…
Who’s blessing whom?
By Scott Dickison Norma is one of my favorite church members. I’m sure pastors are not supposed to have favorite parishioners just like parents aren’t supposed to have favorite children, but hear my confession. I could go on and on…
What’s necessary vs. extravagant giving
By Scott Dickison As far as the typical news cycle goes, this column is about a week late. August 29 marked the 10 year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall on American soil. But then again, on Labor Day of 2005…
Loving God with our minds
By Scott Dickison It would be difficult to grow up in our church and not learn the verse from Scripture that Christians around the world know simply as the “Greatest Commandment:” You shall love the Lord your God with all…
Which direction are you headed in?
By Scott Dickison My dear professor, the late Peter Gomes, used to say about preaching, If you don’t know where you are headed, any road is sure to take you there. I’ve come to believe this wisdom applies to more…
Learning to let grow
By Scott Dickison Last spring, my wife and I decided that tending to an infant was not enough responsibility for us, so we tried our hand at some backyard gardening. I built a raised bed plot in the backyard, trimmed…
The new normal for churches
By Scott Dickison Reading the by-now-infamous Pew Research Center’s report on the state of religious affiliation in America this past week, I was taken back to a conversation I had as a divinity school student with an undergraduate considering ministry….
Setting the table
By Scott Dickison With the arrival of our first son about a year and a half ago, my wife and I have been more intentional about creating our own family holiday traditions. So last Easter, our first together as a…
We’ll all end up in Rosemary
By Scott Dickison If you ask the Lanier clan of the west side of HW 121 near the border of Immanuel and Candler counties in South Georgia (not sure about the other Lanier clan, who hail from just across the…