Ministers and church musicians do not always get excited about Advent and Christmas. Once in a while even the cheeriest, most optimistic pastors look at the work of this winter holiday and think, “Here we go again.” This malady may actually begin when women and men are studying for the ministry in Read More...
The season of Advent is a time of preparation. We shop for gifts, we plan and attend parties, we add an extra worship service or two and maybe a concert or pageant to our regular routines. All of this is done to get us ready for the arrival of the Christmas celebration.However, Read More...
Paul Nixon, in his book, I Refuse to Lead a Dying Church, argues that the churches in America today are dying because we have become too comfortable. He picks on pastors mostly. He says that preachers too often avoid challenging themselves. These shepherds of the church no longer have the desire necessary to Read More...
“Faith is a journey without maps.”1 It is something many desire to have and to hold yet it is elusive, difficult to pin down. Finding our way to faith is sometimes hard to do. I wish that wasn’t true. I’d like it to be easier but on the other hand maybe Read More...
Moving beyond guilt is a primary key to a healthy life. Guilt is not a bad thing when it leads you to examine mistakes and failures. It can be a bridge from sin and failure to a new way of living but if we refuse to cross and instead sit in our Read More...
Last Sunday, Julie and I had lunch at Grand Street Cafe. We were there for a nice meal before heading over to the Country Club Plaza to enjoy the art fair. We got into a conversation with our waiter about our church. He asked, “Where is it?” I said, “It is the Read More...
Recently I had one of those weeks when it felt like there were no moments to pause, take a breath and enjoy the day. Meetings followed meetings. Messages and emails piled up in my inbox. Calls needed to be made, notes reviewed, and more meetings conducted. By the end of the week Read More...
Five hundred years before the time of Christ a Hebrew poet wrote:Enter God’s gates with thanksgiving, and God’s courts with praise. For the Lord is good; God’s steadfast love endures forever, and God’s faithfulness to all generations I thought of these verses from Psalm 100 this morning as I walked around our Read More...
William Willimon, the former chaplain at Duke, says that the true test of prayer is not the style or the movement or the meaning; it is ethics. He says that “the test for what we do here from eleven to noon is what we do out there Monday through Saturday.” Sometimes I Read More...
Telling the truth to God is not as easy it might sound, especially when it comes to prayer. I’ve given and heard many prayers over the years; at the Communion Table, in hospital rooms, at meals, in Sunday school classes, at weddings and funerals, even at football games. Many times the content Read More...
When All You’ve Ever Wanted Isn’t Enough by Dr. R. Glen Miles Have you found that experiencing your dream come true isn’t always the best thing? Oscar Wilde is supposed to have written, “In life, there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting Read More...
Richard Rohr says, “If you are not ready to change, don’t seek out God.” Spiritual growth means that something must change. And if you’re like me, you may be more inclined to keep everything the same in order to avoid any change. We need to be gentle with ourselves though. Life Read More...
There have been times in my life when I wanted to know exactly what God wanted me to do, where to go, which job to take, even silly little things like “should I buy this TV or the other one?” Those decisions would be a lot easier if God would just tell Read More...
Peter, writing to the church two thousand years ago, instructs, “Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything” (1 Peter 4:8, The Message). Have you ever noticed how strong love is when things are tough, when your life really does Read More...
I preach grace. And when I am done preaching on grace I usually preach another sermon on grace! Preaching grace is easy. Living grace is hard. The alternative to grace, judgment, is just as easy to preach and it is a lot easier to live, too. Most of us have an inner Read More...
