They almost seem to come around together: Election Day and Advent. A secular moment and a sacred moment, moving in tandem, as..
I remember a summer evening gathering of the history department where I was a Ph.D. candidate. Faculty and other doctoral students began..
The revised “Book of Common Worship” offers this explanation of the prayers of intercession in the Service for the Lord’s Day: “Prayers..
No one stands alone, we’ll stand side by side. Draw the circle, draw the circle wide. Singing Mark Miller’s setting of these..
Church musicians have been supplementing their income with other jobs for many years. I observed my musical mentors and those observations shaped..
Do you remember the proverbial “pastor’s wife”? My mother and grandmother, like countless women through the years, studied alongside their husbands at..
The way our General Assembly guides the church can be tedious, cumbersome and annoying. But in some ways it’s a laudable theological..
Some of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s bright minds and missional hearts joined the Great Cloud of Witnesses this year, including Hedy Lodwick,..
At its heart, the meeting of our General Assembly is an opportunity to practice stewardship. Commissioners and leaders of the assembly consider..
One thing I am certain of is this: in the creation epic, God worked. Perhaps not literally in the dirty hands, aching back..
Who remembers Benjamin Harrison? The 23rd U.S. president, Republican Benjamin Harrison served one term (1888-1893), wedged between Grover Cleveland’s two terms. The..
As the worship planning for the 223rd General Assembly has moved through the past two years, I have had the unique vantage..
Several months after my congregation, Second Church of Kansas City, Missouri, called Paul Rock as pastor/head of staff in 2010, he asked..
I teach music in church and school settings. In my work at school, I began to use the Orff Schulwerk (school work)..
The little drummer boy is a fictitious visitor to the newborn Jesus. His only gift: the beat of his drum. But the..
Christianity lost the battle for Christmas a long time ago. There was too much money to be made and too much fantasy..
Several times I’ve prayed anxious prayers asking God to avert a crisis. On Sept. 11, 2001, when I heard that my nephew..
Most Sunday mornings after proclaiming the benediction, I walk with the acolyte down the sanctuary’s center aisle.
Maybe you’ve had to explain this part of the Apostles’ Creed before. “Catholic, with the little c, comes from the Greek words..
While a Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) in New Orleans, I started reading Brother Lawrence’s “The Practice of the Presence of God.” I..
I had a full weekend planned with my high-energy 2-year-old. I was especially thrilled about Saturday’s meal. I was throwing a little..
”This congregation has been in slow and steady decline since 1964. I don’t know if we have a future.” “I want the..
Our group of five newly registered chaplaincy residents gathered for the first time with the obligatory “get acquainted” exercise. After selecting..
When an older person walks into a library and asks you how to use a computer having never touched one before, where..
In the early 1980s, one of our associate pastors detected a need for a Bible study that members, like me, who worked..
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