In 1963, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. famously quipped, “It is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is 11 o’clock on Sunday morning.” According to religion scholars, more than sixty years later, the assertion remains true.
An Hour Spent in Study
A well-known proverb among Jewish rabbis goes like this: “An hour spent in study is an hour spent in prayer.” I love that saying, not just because study is important to me as a former seminary professor but because it reminds me that study is a way of praying, of …
Back to Basics
On August 15, we are returning to in-person worship at our three normal times: 9:01, 10:00, and 11:00. You probably already knew that since we’ve been announcing it over and over. But what you may not know is that another “return” is in the works starting that same day, a …
What Makes a Life Worth Living?
By Dr. Mike Graves, Scholar in Residence and Minister of Spiritual Formation Three years ago this January, the New York Times published an article, “Yale’s Most Popular Course Ever: Happiness.” The course was actually called Psychology and the Good Life, and within six days of being listed for the previous …
Socially Distanced, Socially Connected
Most every week when the staff meets, we read an article or excerpt from a book for us to ponder and discuss. Some are heavy, others not so much. Some focus directly on ministry, others on a variety of topics with us having to make our own connections. But there’s …
Tales from a Cotton Patch
Clarence Jordan was a farmer. Clarence Jordan was a New Testament Greek scholar. Clarence Jordan was a Southern Baptist minister and social activist. Clearly, he was not your ordinary kind of farmer.
Hungry for Human Contact
By Dr. Mike Graves, Scholar in Residence and Minister of Spiritual Formation An article in a recent issue of Scientific American noted that researchers at MIT have isolated the place in our brains that craves social interaction and food. Who knew? I mean we all like food, and even introverts …
The Power of the Printed Page
By Dr. Mike Graves, Scholar in Residence One of my good friends finished off 2019 by reading his 52nd title of the year. Unless a person’s diet of reading is limited to Dr. Seuss or Daniel Tiger, a book per week is impressive. Of course, my friend is a professor, so reading …
Joyful Communion
By Dr. Mike Graves, Scholar in Residence and Minister of Spiritual Formation If you look up the word communion in the dictionary, the first entry simply reads “sharing,” whereas other entries have the usual religious overtones. Turns out, sharing is precisely what the Greek word means as well, only with …
What’s a Podcast?
By Dr. Mike Graves, Scholar in Residence and Minister of Spiritual Formation It’s not uncommon in her sermons to hear Carla reference a book she’s been reading or a podcast she’s listened to recently, maybe an episode of “The Moth.” It only recently occurred to me that not only are …
Unless Someone Guides Me
By Dr. Mike Graves, Scholar in Residence/Minister of Spiritual Formation There is a story in the early church of a man named Philip coming across someone reading from the prophet Isaiah in the Bible. Philip asks the man if he understands what he’s reading, and I love his response, “How …
Books, Books, Books
By Dr. Mike Graves When I was only part-time at Country Club Christian Church, and still serving part-time on the faculty at Saint Paul School of Theology, I actually had three offices, including the one at home. That meant I had three sets of bookshelves for all those volumes. When …
Not in Latin
Dr. Mike Graves, Scholar in Residence and Minister of Spiritual Formation Among the church staff, there is something of a standing joke. When it’s your turn to write a piece like this one for the newsletter, if you don’t have it in by Tuesday noon when we meet, the draft …
Scholar or Nerd?
Rev. Mike Graves, Scholar in Residence and Minister of Spiritual Formation When I was in seminary, there were days I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that what was being presented was a piece of trivia that would never come in handy, not in my daily life as a …