I once was a “professional Christian.” Like David Ramsey, (who recently authored “What Could the Church Learn from Amazon?”), I also stepped away from the church, and I agree with him that part of the problem was “the pressures that…
This nation needs a church
I have an argument that sounds idealistic, naïve, even triumphalist, but that only serves to increase my determination: The nation needs a church. I still believe the church matters and that we have a role to play that is the…
What could the church learn from Amazon?
In 1994, Jeff Bezos left a lucrative job as an investment banker on Wall Street to start a company selling books on a new technology called the internet. Two years later, I left a non-lucrative career in ministry and entered…
Letter to the Editor: Responses to the livestream worship debate
Letter to the Editor: February 17, 2022 Dear Editor: I am grateful to the many people who responded to my opinion piece, “A Cautious Case Against Livestreaming Worship.” The readership for this less than 800-word piece far exceeds any of…
Yes, I like the ‘old’ hymns too, but not the ones you may think
Yesterday, a friend agreed with an article about liking old hymns more than much of today’s worship music. This is right where I live. With 50-plus years of music ministry under my belt, and as a bit of a self-proclaimed…
When following the line leads us astray
“The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup; you support my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; Indeed, my heritage is beautiful to me.” — Psalm 16:5-6 Back nearly 30 years ago, I…
Can we talk about Encanto?
Warning: Spoilers ahead. It took the boredom of an icy winter day to convince my tween and teen sons to watch the new Disney animated movie Encanto with me. I had heard the catchy songs topping the Billboard charts and…
Who will carry on United Methodism’s legacy of service and community?
When I was a young-ish reporter working on a medium-sized daily newspaper in Florida, one of the more dreaded assignments was the Saturday work known as “bits and ‘burbs.” That jargon stood for the oft-scorned task of collecting suburban news…
Evangelicalism isn’t dying; it’s already dead
Long before there was evangelicalism, before there was even such a thing as Christianity, there was good news. As the earliest Jesus followers wrestled with exactly what it meant that this prophet from Nazareth had been crucified and resurrected, what…