By Colin Harris Increased participation in interfaith dialogue in recent years has brought new levels of friendship and understanding across lines often marked by fear and hostility. Fellowship leads to friendship, hostility gives way to hospitality, respect replaces suspicion and…
Atrocious saints
“A democratic autocrat. An urbane savage. An atrocious saint.” That’s how biographer James Patton described Andrew Jackson, seventh president of the United States of America. In seeking to write the first scholarly biography of the native Tennessean, Parton felt like…
The case of the declining congregation
By Bill Wilson It is becoming a consistent scenario in our work with conflicted churches — Anxious congregations overreact to symptomatic issues and cause great harm to people and ministry. In its simplest form, it looks something like this: a…
Feb. 9, 1964: the day the church changed never to go back again
Sunday, Feb. 9, 2014 was the 50th anniversary of The Beatles appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. The British musical invasion hit its first quality live prime time that day. It is also the day the Church in the United…
What’s so beautiful about America?
By Marv Knox The blogosphere, Facebook, Twitter and, no doubt, millions of e-mail accounts just about melted down lately, thanks to a Coca-Cola commercial. Maybe America needs to hold a can of Coke up to its collective face and chill…
Treasuring the gift of water
By Bruce Day The Bible is full of water illustrations and metaphors. Most are of the positive actions and attributes of God – cleansing, restoring, saving. Some of my favorites are: • Psalm 1:3, “That person is like a tree…
A faulty worldview
The news recently broke that Virginia’s new Attorney General plans to ask a federal judge to declare the Commonwealth’s voter-passed constitutional amendment officially upholding the traditional understanding of marriage unconstitutional. This move is entirely unsurprising even as it is deeply…
No wiggle room on a church staff
(This blog describes a problem I have never heard named. Unfortunately, I have not proposed a solution. I hope I am starting a helpful conversation, since I don’t have a Final Answer. What are your ideas?) Most churches are small….
Religion and science call for dialogue, not debate
By Joseph Phelps People love a fight, especially one that includes religion. So Bill Nye, the Science Guy, and Ken Ham, founder of the Creation Museum, did their best this week in their nationally-watched face-off to recreate the Scopes Monkey…