Online or as gathered community, through PayPal or the offering plate, when it is “sanctuary and when it isn’t, we cling to the gospel and the church, not as a hymn-singing non-profit, but as the Body of Christ.
I wish we’d all been ready | #intimeslikethese
Looking for signs of the end times doesn’t prepare us to live in times of crisis; it only allows us to spiritualize real-world problems and imagine a divine intervention that frees us from earthly responsibility to address social inequality, disease and global disaster.
Leaving the corners of our fields unharvested for the sake of the most vulnerable | #intimeslikethese
What if this, our most recent apocalypse, was met by a Church willing to do more than hastily broadcast its services online – a Church willing to love, serve and give up itself, and even its budget, for the sake of the world?
Quarantine confession: eating ice cream and longing for the gym | #intimeslikethese
Although I’m not quite ready to repent of it, I see that I’ve become one of those people who sees the world only through what suits me and my wants.
Making wise and courageous choices amid the best and worst of times | #intimeslikethese
While we are in no way beset by all that Dickens’ time portended, we have some choices about how to live in our own time.
As COVID-19 spreads, Millennial bashing and other blaming is unhelpful and un-Christlike
Millennial Christians, let’s not be reckless about potentially putting others at risk. Older Christians, please don’t assume that young people are being selfish and uncaring before you understand their circumstances.
An urgent appeal to my fellow ministers and other religious leaders: Suspend all public gatherings NOW
These are troubled times, but our faith and our traditions have prepared us for this work. This is the time to believe – and live into – our message.
Church and the coronavirus: practicing compassion and care even as we take precautions
I hope churches and other faith communities will find ways to celebrate the call to care for one another, even in – perhaps especially in – times of planetary peril.
Five reasons your church probably isn’t spending too much on personnel
If you buy into the popular myth – and faulty metric – that a church should devote no more than 50 percent of its budget to personnel costs, you may risk starving your congregation of its energy or life force.
Letter to the Editor – Responding to a commentary on heaven and hell
From Kirby D. Smith in Midlothian, Virginia
Work as religion: why Protestants need to let go of the Protestant Work Ethic
The rise of work as a religion has occurred during the decline of Christianity as a religion.
We’ve got plenty to be afraid of these days. So why does the Bible tell us not to fear?
The point is not what we fear, but what a life ruled by fear can do to us.