Yesterday, many churches joined the worship or God with the worship of country as the lines between church and state were blurred with the singing patriotic songs and the parade of red, white, and blue in sanctuaries. In blurring those lines, we forget how many people are not free to be themselves in our country and …
I remember in seminary, discussing a case study in which someone was asking to become a member of Baptist church. In the case study, the person had been baptized as an infant and did not want to be rebaptized. This was rich fodder for us as future ministers because many of us were serving in …
I was recently being interviewed and in the course of our discussion, my interviewer remarked: “Well, you have gotten the reputation of talking about hot button issues, people usually don’t want to talk about.” I laughed, but after the interview was over I thought a little more earnestly about that statement. Why did I ask …
I’ve spent the last two and half years worship planning almost every week. As part of that planning process, I asked people to participate in our worship service. It would easy to ask the people who are always willing to participate to lead, but it’s much more difficult to take the time to examine the …
