There’s a “big box” church in our town that’s all the rage. If you live anywhere in America that’s even slightly urban, there’s probably a big box church in your area as well. By “big box” I mean the kind…
Don’t forget about associate pastors
Last week I spoke to a group of associate pastors at a continuing education program with the American Baptist Churches of New Jersey. This group of associates was very diverse demographically, but they all shared the same challenges. I started…
Confessions of a conflicted feminist
By Aimee Yeager Be independent. Go after your career. Don’t get married before 30. If you do marry, don’t let him think you want to be pregnant and barefoot in the kitchen. Fight for non-sexist language to describe humanity and…
From prostitution to victimization
The first time I walked down this street, it was by accident. We were relatively new to the city. I enjoy ferreting out the various markets and shopping possibilities in cities we where we have lived. Brussels was no different….
A committee-run church can be ugly
A ministry friend recently posted a request on Facebook for the job descriptions for church committees. That is a very legitimate request. If a church is going to have committees, those committees need to have a clear understanding of their…
Who owns the land?
By Miguel De La Torre Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata coined the slogan, “la tierra es de quien la trabaja” — the land belongs to those who work it. The Bible seems to agree. The story of King Ahab, Queen Jezebel and…
Love has no borders
In April of 2011 the legislature of Alabama passed the harshest anti-immigrant law in America. Central Alabama had just been hit by a series of devastating tornadoes, and churches were preoccupied with ministry to those who were victims of the…
Customer service and servant leadership
For the most part, I only think about “customer service” when I am the customer and on the receiving end of what I consider poor service. I will not elaborate here. Each of us has a collection of frustrating stories…
Prison songs
By Bill Leonard In God’s Long Summer, Charles Marsh describes the summer of 1963 when Fannie Lou Hamer and other representatives of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference were arrested in Winona, Miss., for attempting to be served at a “whites…
Life outside the fence
We humans don’t like living outside our comfort zone. We like familiar surroundings, familiar faces, and predictable routines. I’m just the same though to most folks it might look like my husband and I are already living outside of our…
New York Times gets Senate prayer wrong
Unless you have been sleeping under a rock, our government is at a budget impasse and everyone is mad as hell. Senate Chaplain Barry Black, a retired Navy rear admiral, gave a Senate prayer that the New York Times reported as “scolding”:…
Stuck in the messy middle
By Alan Bean In the 1950s and 1960s, the unofficial public theology of America was dominated by theologians associated with what we now call “the Protestant Mainline.” A public theology makes biblical teaching relevant to the pressing political, economic and…