So here’s how last week went down for me. It actually all began almost two weeks ago when I was sitting in an airport about a 12-hour plane ride away from home. The final presidential debate wasn’t on TV anywhere,…
How can a diverse community of faith collaborate with God in the world’s healing?
I doubt I’m telling you something you don’t know, but just in case you’re wondering, let me say from the start: leading a church is hard work. It’s just perpetually difficult to bring a group of people together, united or…
Looking for what is good in a challenging world
Who we choose to be informs how we will live and move and have our being in this world. After all, we are people commanded to be known by the way we love one another. If that is our starting point in all things, we will see the good and hope and promise in the challenges before us.
When a tiny church houses three religions
Four communities of faith — Christian, Muslim, Jewish and interfaith — form the Multifaith Campus, a novel experiment in multiple religions sharing not just a building but a community.
Finding a way forward: A church rooted in its community
Just over two and a half years ago, I stepped into the pulpit at St. Charles Avenue Baptist Church for the first time and preached about the uncertain future we were entering together. Like so many churches across the United…
Is your social network your community? Probably not.
Henry Mintzberg of the University of McGill has asked an interesting question of those who believe they are living in community because of their social networks. “If you want to understand the difference between a network and a community,” he…
The spiritual practice of putting down roots
By Jayne Hugo Davis “In whatever place you find yourself, do not easily leave it.” — Abba Antony I love finding tiny volunteer maple saplings around my yard. They spring up between the bushes in the landscaping bed or behind…
Larger than the Church
By Starlette McNeill “If you are without a church home, then we invite you to come forward at this time.” This is the invitation that is extended in most, if not all, congregations after the delivery of the sermon. Having…
Displaying an all-encompassing, come-as-you-are love of God
By Amy Butler This week has been another week of heart-wrenching news headlines, enough to make any thinking person despair for the state of the world. While Americans are preoccupied with misguided public servants tenaciously distorting the average American’s understanding…