In perhaps the most shocking development to come out of the Trayvon Martin shooting, since George Zimmerman‘s alleged plans to flee the country, occurred in an interview with Fox’s Sean Hannity. During the interview, Zimmerman discussed a number of topics,…
Race and intentionality, then and now
By Bill Leonard In his recent book Moses, Jesus and the Trickster in the Evangelical South, University of Colorado history professor Paul Harvey describes the South “as a land of paradox and contradiction.” “How else, for example, can one grasp…
Should we abolish the death penalty?
On July 3 the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, called on all member states to abolish the death penalty. The worldwide trend is away from the death penalty. In 2000, 31 countries carried out an execution. In 2011,…
Why the world needs ‘Glee’
By J. Barrett Owen In a postmodern, post-denominational, post-Christian, post-religious, post-everything world, the church has floundered on developing a consistent message to help transform culture. The church attempted to entertain, but not many 20-somethings woke up to hear a bad…
What Fox says that the church doesn’t
In a postmodern, post-denominational, post-Christian, post-religious, post-everything world, the church has floundered on developing a consistent message to help transform culture. The church attempted to entertain – but not many twenty-somethings woke up to hear a bad guitarist sing shallow…
Competition or Communion?
For years my church struggled with what to do about Wednesday nights. Because we were largely a congregation of university students, the conventional wisdom was to do anything that involved a stage. Speakers, musicians, lights, observers sitting in rows of…
Don’t forsake the old hymns
By Bob Burroughs I am becoming very burdened about what I am seeing, feeling and experiencing in worship these days in many churches. Things are different, even unusual, and for a lot of people, very uncomfortable. One such area is…
Never say never
I am working on a major sewing project. I told my daughter years ago, “Just never ask me to make your wedding dress.” Yeah… well… never say never! You guessed it… that is exactly what I am in the midst…
Where’s the mystery of God anymore?
By Mark Wingfield In a world of “Ten Steps to Effective Christian Living” sermons, what’s happened to allowing some room for the mysterious ways of God? The self-help mentality that has invaded churches may have produced the unintended consequence of…
What’s on your menu?
By Bill Wilson Let’s start with a disclaimer. Congregations and restaurants are not in the same business. Thinking like a restaurant can lead to embracing the consumer culture of the day. Catering to expectations has been the death knell of…
What’s on your menu?
By Bill Wilson Let’s start with a disclaimer. Congregations and restaurants are not in the same business. Thinking like a restaurant can lead to embracing the consumer culture of the day. Catering to expectations has been the death knell of…
What’s your spiritual practice?
Is our faith something we are or something we practice? Last week, one of the first questions I was asked at the Chaplaincy Institute for the Arts and Interfaith Ministries while attending a training in the art of spiritual direction was: “What…