I estimate forty of us— spread like thin gravy over the dim sanctuary. My own Baptist flock honors the noontime crucifixion, so tonight my son and I are free to join these Methodists who have hired four Gregorian chanters from the…
The powers of two
By John Chandler Joshua Wolf Shenk finds in Paul McCartney and John Lennon a master metaphor of how brilliance happens. In his recent book, Power of Two: Finding the Essence of Innovation in Creative Pairs, Shenk makes the case that…
Compete or collaborate
The Dilemma for Christian Ministries I have encountered several situations recently where it appeared Christian ministries prefer to compete rather than collaborate. They wanted the success of their own ministry or congregation or denomination rather than the significance of kingdom…
Christ’s body image
By Starlette McNeill For the past three years, I have led a young adult women’s group. It is comprised of 18 to 35 year olds, that mysterious group and magical age range that we know exists but can’t seem to…
Gentrification and its discontents
Chris and I are riding home from church when I bring up local politics. I’m interested in what he thinks about the creeping development that is beginning to put some pressure on the edges of our neighborhood. “Have you noticed…
Seeking Jesus is like hunting for Easter eggs
Whenever I hear someone suggest the gospels are pretty much straight forward, I want to ask her or him whether we are reading the same books. There are so many times when reading the gospels, I stop, wondering if I…
At Lent: Sin, evil and us
By Bill Leonard On Feb. 10, 2015, three Muslim students at UNC-Chapel Hill — a married couple and her sister — were shot by one of the “neighbors” in their apartment complex. The New York Times reported: “The victims’ families…
What Easter means (and why what literally happened on Easter morning is irrelevant)
What matters most is not what historically happened on Easter morning to the body of Jesus but what the Easter story means. The Easter stories in the Gospels are religious/spiritual/theological stories, not historical reports. That is not to say there…
Understanding one’s life as part of God’s work of redemption
By Amy Butler That day as I stood in front of the gathered congregation, I could feel their dismay — an almost desperate exasperation and lack of hope at the state of their community. It was my first congregational meeting…
Must we choose between fundamentalism and ‘belief-less Christianity’?
John Shuck is a Presbyterian pastor in good standing who doesn’t believe a single thing you learned in Sunday school. In a recent Patheos post, Reverend Shuck issued a list of six affirmations designed to boil the blood of every right-thinking American:…
What do lay leaders say about their dying congregations?
We have often heard stories of what people say on their deathbed about the wise, not so wise, and foolish ways they spent their life. Recently I wondered about what lay leaders might say about their dying congregations. My focus…
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…