Last year about this time I was preaching for the Blue Christmas service held at a church in a another city. It’s one of those services where the church gives a nod to the fact that not all people are…
Book shares struggles of Baptist women
By Jeff Brumley Growing up Baptist, Jennifer Harris Dault says her calling into the ministry was clouded by comments and assumptions along the way that the pulpit was no place for women. “I had this feeling as a kid that…
Making room for joy
By Molly T. Marshall I have always been an avid reader of Dr. Seuss. Long before I became a theologian, I knew that his whimsical rhyming contained great wisdom and ethical insight. He was well ahead of his contemporaries on…
‘The Hobbit’ as Advent journey
By Darrell Gwaltney “In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit,” so begins J.R.R. Tokien’s The Hobbit or There and Back Again. In preparation for The Hobbit: An UnExpected Journey opening this weekend, I picked up my old…
Rescuing Advent from Christmas
By Bill Leonard In 394 CE the Spanish nun Egeria visited Holy Land sites, participating in the church’s great liturgical moments from Epiphany to Easter. She kept a wonderful diary of her exploits that includes this experience in Bethlehem’s Church…
The mystery of Advent
By Elizabeth Evans Hagan Advent has always been a mystery to me. Maybe it is because I never celebrated it in the churches of my childhood, where we just rushed into singing every verse of “Joy to the World” the…
Advent devotions start Sunday
By Bob Allen This year’s Following the Star, daily online Advent devotionals offered free of charge by Passport, Inc., begins Sunday, Dec. 2, with daily meditations accessible at www.d365.org. Passport, a youth camping ministry formed in 1993, launched Following the…
Keeping watch
By Molly T. Marshall I recently heard a child grumble: “Do we really have to celebrate Jesus’ birth every year? Isn’t once enough?” Some of us may echo this sentiment more than we dare to say publicly, especially as we…
Advent a progressive journey toward Christmas
By Barry Howard When observed faithfully and progressively, Advent can prepare us for a Christmas celebration filled with mystical wonder and deep meaning, a spiritual communion that far exceeds the buzz of shallow commercialism. In the rural church of my…
This Advent season, just you wait
By Marv Knox We need Advent particularly badly this year, and not simply because it’s a prelude to Christmas. Advent marks the beginning of the church year and starts four Sundays before Christmas. Advent takes its name from the Latin…
Lovers and dreamers
By Amy Butler The feelings the movie brought back were warm, and leaving the theater in gathering darkness I couldn’t help thinking to myself: “Some days I wish life were as simple now as it was back when The Muppet…
Christ the King
By R. Kevin Johnson During Advent, we revisited the message of the prophets who told of the coming of the Messiah, the Savior of humankind. During the Christmas season, we joined with Christians around the world to celebrate the birth…