As I was waiting to pay my bill at the store last week, I was observing the magazine headlines. The majority had a picture of Prince George and his proud parents Prince William and Duchess Kate. This brought to my…
You can’t please everyone
By Bill Wilson I recently spent a memorable and meaningful few days with a group of music ministers. Throughout our times of worship, breakouts and social interaction, I had many significant conversations with these men and women about their life…
Environmental racism afflicts US minorities
By Miguel De La Torre We are called by God to be good stewards of the earth. Unfortunately, racism gets in the way. Environmental racism, defined as the link between the degradation of the environment and the racial composition of the areas…
American folk religion
When I was in college, I had the privilege of spending a couple of weeks in Mexico, on a mission trip, as a member of something called a “youth choir”. A couple of pre-emptive answers to your inevitable questions: Yes, our shirts always matched….
Reflections on “The Way, Way Back” and why I believe in youth ministry
This week I had the chance to catch the new movie The Way, Way Back. In the film, the gangly and awkward teenage protagonist Duncan is having difficulty finding his place. His adolescent growing pains have only been compounded by his mother’s…
Even Westboro loves its friends
By Corey Fields A young woman described her experience of moving to a new community and finding a new church home. She wrote of how the church made an inspiring first impression on her: “Everybody was super-accommodating, bending over backward to…
Homosexuality and the Bible
By Luke Smith In the recent decision of the Supreme Court in United States vs. Windsor, the court struck down the federal law defining marriage exclusively as a monogamous union of a man and woman. I have been asked by…
Let’s play: morph your church into a museum
The long-range goal of many congregations is to turn their church into a museum. It is not intentional. It is unintentional. It is just that actions taken year after year migrates them away from thriving as a missional movement to…
On-the-job training
By Amy Butler Every minister knows there could be massive tomes written on the topic, “Things I Never Learned in Seminary.” This is not because seminary faculties try to trick us by leaving some of the essentials out of the…