By Bill Leonard In 394 CE the Spanish nun Egeria visited Holy Land sites, participating in the church’s great liturgical moments from Epiphany to Easter. She kept a wonderful diary of her exploits that includes this experience in Bethlehem’s Church…
Thankful once a year
By Amy Butler When Thanksgiving and Advent are back-to-back, per usual, there’s hardly time to clear the turkey off the table to make room for the Advent wreath before the first candle should be lit. Most years we scramble back…
Raising a lover – not a fighter
Chances are you haven’t met my almost five-year-old, except for those obligatory readers from my extended family (hi mom!). I happen to think he’s amazingly brillant and brilliantly amazing. I’m sure this is why he has a healthy self-esteem. Every…
Joy, joy, joy
By Amy Butler Lately, that vacation Bible school song “I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart” has been running around in my head, and I can’t get it out. Remember the song? We learned it, I…
Confessions of a sitting duck
By Amy Butler The expression “like sitting ducks” seems apropos for those of us on the East Coast last week. We knew for several days that a huge storm was headed our way, and so we waited, glued to news…
Seven Reasons Why Christians Should Celebrate ‘Halloween’
Is celebrating a holiday that honors ghouls, demons, ghosts, and everything that goes bump in the night dangerous or even evil? Somewhere, in the halls of history, Halloween or All Hallows Eve, got hijacked. What started as a day to…
American politics, in the style of C.S. Lewis
By Isaac Sharp Nephew, You are, no doubt, aware that the Americans are amidst one of their most important and highly revered seasons of life. A time when many people feel that, as T.S. Eliot once said: “An election is…
The polling place vs. the pulpit
By Amy Butler In general, it’s probably not a great idea for the preacher to get too political in his or her day-to-day life. For one thing, waxing poetic on one’s own personal positions can be mistaken for public endorsement…
Why I had an Egg McMuffin this morning
By Brett Younger I boycotted Chick-fil-A for years. This is not an excuse, but I grew up in Southern Baptist churches in the Deep South. I am embarrassed as I look back on my narrow-mindedness, but this is what I…