In the early 1980s, one of our associate pastors detected a need for a Bible study that members, like me, who worked..
When I went through confirmation class decades ago at First Presbyterian Church in Woodstock, Illinois, no one said to me what Jan..
When Martin Luther inadvertently began the Protestant Reformation in October 1517, it was his judgment that the Catholic Church had adopted..
In this season of gratitude and anxious waiting, I will be giving thanks for the gift of doubt. After all, it’s what..
On the first day of my first full-time job out of journalism school, a newspaper editor assigned me to cover a street..
A few years back a friend announced, “For Lent this year, I’m giving up.” I waited for him to finish the sentence,..
A decade or two from now, when we Presbyterians look back at 2015, we will see it as a landmark year. Why?..
When the chair of our congregation’s associate pastor nominating committee announced the completion of the search this spring, one of our elders..
There’s a story we often tell in my congregation (Second Church of Kansas City, Missouri) about our founding 150 years ago this..
In this season of resurrection, I sometimes wonder what of my spirit, my center I will leave behind when ham-handed death pummels..
I’ve heard arguments over the years that the church should focus solely (souly?) on the spiritual well-being of its members and their..
Late last year my congregation did something different. We put together what we called “Be the Church Sunday,” in which, after prayer..
On Mondays each week I volunteer at a 24-hour skilled nursing facility that my congregation helped start for AIDS/HIV patients. Not a..
Earlier this year when I read about — and then read — the “Zionism Unsettled” report on sources of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,..
When we look back at World War I 100 years after its start, it’s easy to see that public opinion was wrong..
WASHINGTON D.C. – It was late on a recent Friday afternoon when I slipped into New York Avenue Presbyterian Church here to..
I think of Margaret E. Towner as the Presbyterian Jackie Robinson. In 1956, she broke the gender line to become the first..
For four straights Sundays, my congregation brought in two excellent seminary professors to talk to us first about why we should care..
Like many congregations, mine has a library. It’s near the office on the first floor of the church building and is named..
Late last year, as I was finishing the manuscript for my new book, “Woodstock: A Story of Middle Americans,” which is rooted..
People of faith often use metaphors related to eyesight. We’ve seen the light. We get the gift of new eyes. We see..
My memories of the first time I taught a weeklong seminar at Ghost Ranch about getting from pain to hope through writing..
I knew something fascinating was coming when my friend and co-author, Rabbi Jacques Cukierkorn, sent me an e-mail saying, “Gentiles do not..
At the end of a line of 14 other persons standing in front of our congregation to profess their faith and become..
My congregation may or may not help to create one of the “1001 New Worshiping Communities” the PC(USA) is promoting, but just..
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