On a Thursday afternoon in a poor, run-down section of Durham, N.C., the parking lot outside Shepherd’s House United Methodist Church is full. On the second and third floor of the neo-Gothic brick building, the floorboards creak as employees and…
Let’s share this mess
It doesn’t happen every day, but sometimes I buckle down and cook dinner for my husband and three teenagers. It’s a lot of effort, but it’s almost always worth it and, at least the way I cook, it always makes…
Holy dreams
How your bulletin makes me feel like I do (or don’t) belong
In my search for a church home during graduate school, I attended over ten churches in two years, each with their own different style of communication. Some handed out a tan, tri-fold piece of paper by which I could follow…
“On the Pulse of Morning”
January 20, 1993, was a big day for the woman who was born in 1928 and named Marguerite Ann Johnson. You probably don’t know her by that name, for she was introduced as Maya Angelou before reading one of her…
God have mercy: A Latina prayer
Quoting King
A host of activities filled the calendar on Martin Luther King Day. Community service projects, downtown parades, clergy breakfasts, and ecumenical worship services were all on the slate to honor Dr. King’s legacy and celebrate the 86th anniversary of his…
Beyond belief
Coping with opposition
While living in Louisville, Kentucky (while attending seminary many more years ago than I would like to admit) I was briefly employed as a youth minister for a 150-year-old congregation located downtown. Situated in what had been a very prosperous…
A profoundly simple question – where is your faith?
It feels like a trick question. Like the one a teacher asks each new class: “How many months of the year have 28 days?” Just as surely as someone always yells out “February,” a more thoughtful student eventually realizes: “All…
To hand someone a dollar or not?
by Kim Priddy, Associate Pastor of Missions To hand someone a dollar or not? This is a debate that is faced when you come upon someone holding a cardboard sign at an intersection that reads: “Hungry- Anything Helps.” The bible…