Our nation lives in suspended grief over 900,000 dead from COVID. Every day we go to the funeral home, the graveyard. Every day the bells toll for those who keep dying from COVID. Where are words of comfort? Is there…
A cautious case against livestreaming worship
I want to share with you a handful of reasons I am not on the worship livestream bandwagon. Many congregations now livestream, or record and post later, their entire worship services from beginning to end. Our church is out-of-step with…
Leaving church, part 3: ‘Opposition to leadership’
In the face of opposition to leadership, successful leaders never give up or walk away. At least, that is what leadership experts tell us. Instead, these experts suggest persistence and dogged determination as appropriate responses to opposition. This viewpoint is…
Alliance of Baptists shifts again to online gathering
The Alliance of Baptists announced Jan. 31 that it has scuttled plans for an in-person annual meeting in Fort Worth, Texas, in April due to continued concerns about the pandemic. “The Alliance is committed to making every space as equitable…
A response to Tish Harrison Warren about livestreaming worship
“I think it’s time to drop the virtual option,” says Tish Harrison Warren in an op-ed for the New York Times, arguing that churches should stop livestreaming their services. She explains: “Bodies, with all the risk, danger, limits, mortality and vulnerability…
In Oklahoma, a mother watches a miracle unfold as her son finally wins the battle against COVID
Amid the millions of stories of devasting loss from COVID-19, occasionally there’s an unexplained miracle. This is one such story. Chase Martin is a 34-year-old former college linebacker who lives in Moore, Okla., a southern suburb of Oklahoma City. In…
American kids’ mental health is in crisis; the solution isn’t just therapy, it’s revolution
In early December, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued a nationwide Advisory on Protecting Youth Mental Health in light of what he termed “the pandemic’s unprecedented impacts on the mental health of America’s youth and families, as well as the mental…
Has your church attendance declined again? It’s likely because Americans are worried once again about COVID
If in-person attendance at your church has declined in recent weeks, it’s probably a sign of Americans’ increasing concern about getting COVID-19. Gallup reports that its survey of American adults from Jan. 3 to Jan. 14 found increasing concern about…
Traditionalist United Methodists’ offer to pay for vaccination of African delegates is not the shot in the arm they thought it would be
United Methodist politics erupted in a public confrontation this week as three international bishops and a dozen other church leaders denounced a traditionalist group’s offer to provide coronavirus immunizations for General Conference delegates from countries with limited vaccine access. The…