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…
Who needs the church when we have the biblical worldview?
After his second visit to New York in 1939, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrestled with the character of Protestant churches in America versus those in Europe in an essay titled “Protestantism without Reformation.” Even as he introduced his argument, which plays up…
The Worst Christmas Pageant Ever
Christmas season means a lot of things — family, presents, carols, Hallmark movies, the Grinch, lights, Santa, Nativity scenes, stockings hung by the chimney with care, and the dreaded Christmas pageant. Why, oh why, did the church decide turning over…
The loneliness epidemic
In 2020, the topic of loneliness was everywhere. Concern for seniors in retirement homes, for singles stuck in efficiency apartments, and for other groups of Americans rose as it became clear that the disease could overwhelm hospitals and interfere with…
Why I’m among the unchurched today
In his Nov. 9 analysis, “The Church Is Losing Its Way,” Rob Sellers outlines the numerous ways in which the church is failing. In addition to Sellers’ list (irrelevance, unchallenging, unaccepting, and, most interestingly, unChristlike), I would like to add…
The church is losing its way
Statistics for 2021 from across multiple Christian denominations reveal a decrease in church membership and active participation, according to the parachurch organization Exponential and the Pew Research Center. This decline can be attributed, in large part, to the increasing number…
The scandal of the persistent ‘color line’ in American Christianity
In addition to Halloween yesterday, many in the Protestant Christian world celebrated Reformation Day, commemorating when Martin Luther posted his “95 Theses” on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, Oct. 31, 1517. This is commonly understood as…