When Graham and Alyssa asked me to perform the ceremony, I took it as a compliment, even though it also was a cost-cutting decision. They probably thought I would use my 10 minutes to talk about love. Ministers love talking…
God’s divine plan for eclipses and ellipses
A few years ago, my teenage son beat me at chess. Because I’m a horrible chess player, I took the defeat with aplomb. Later the same day, though, he beat me at Scrabble. Now, that just plain hurt. I rarely…
Why are weddings so expensive today and why are so few held in churches?
Thirty-eight years ago this summer, Alison and I said “I do” in a wedding ceremony at our home church in Albuquerque. We splurged and hired trumpeters for the simple ceremony. The crowd of 150 friends and family celebrated with us…
Blowing the whistle on wedding fouls
“One last thing. If you ever have a choice between performing a wedding or performing funeral, take the funeral.” So said my pastor when I was 15 and announced my goal to follow in his footsteps. He wasn’t joking. At…
Lessons from a Hindu wedding: What if the point of evangelism is friendship?
I just got back from my third trip to Tamil Nadu, India. My academic program has a decade-long collaboration with two schools there, and their faculty have traveled to Oregon three times for shared projects. Over the years, I’ve built…
Supreme Court hears case of wedding website designer who won’t serve same-sex couples
While the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court appears ready-made to support a Colorado wedding website designer who doesn’t want to serve same-sex couples, other justices grilled her attorney hard about why she should be allowed to discriminate on…
COVID has tied the wedding business in knots
Three weeks before their scheduled wedding date of April 4, 2020, Sam Lebow and Meghan Dworschak wrote a final check to the caterer for their reception. “Two days later,” Sam said, “we had to postpone the wedding.” The reason? COVID-19….
Pulling off a wedding during a pandemic requires creativity and simplicity
If the COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating the pre-existing trend away from church weddings, some ministers say it’s also inspiring a surge in intimate ceremonies with faith as a driving force. “I have done twice as many off-campus weddings in alternative…
Is the pandemic-era church a church without baptisms, funerals and other major rituals?
“I have to ask myself: am I doing anything I was called to do when I became a pastor?”