I remember when I was in seminary when a friend asked me to pray for him. “I’m only asking you,” he said,..
The anniversary is over – now down to business. Welcome to 2018 – the year after the 500th anniversary of the Reformation...
While a Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) in New Orleans, I started reading Brother Lawrence’s “The Practice of the Presence of God.” I..
It may disgust my parents to hear this, but some of the greatest presents I ever received were cardboard boxes. They weren’t..
I remember my first fervent, desperate, I-will-do-anything-if-you-answer-this-prayer-God prayer. When I was 8 years old, my little brother’s life seemed to hang in..
Like many others, these days I’ve been swimming a sea of anxiety that only seems to worsen the more I read and..
The story in Exodus 1:1-22 tells us that the powers that be wanted to maintain the status quo. The “establishment” was afraid..
When you enter the United States from abroad, you have to clear passport control. Typically, an agent checks your passport, asks..
About a year ago, a young woman walked into my office at First Presbyterian Church in Vero Beach, Florida. She was..
First Presbyterian Church of Seattle: Then and now First Presbyterian Church of Seattle was organized in 1869 with seven charter members..
The steaming mad email arrived Sunday afternoon. The subject line read: “Leaving White Memorial.” The writer, a member whom I had..
Guest commentary by George Love As a pastor with a responsibility for preaching each Sunday, I always have my antenna up. Every..
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..
We are in the home stretch of 2017 and we at the Presbyterian Outlook are looking with excitement toward 2018. Plans are..
It’s about the giving, really. So that all those holy folk who moan about the marketing and such can tend to miss..
Sappy sentiments about “home” pervade this season no less than cheesy Christmas music and relentless advertisements telling us to buy things. The..
Don’t panic about the clergy housing allowance. You wouldn’t know it from the breathless posts in social media, but the fate of..
The emerging leaders of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) are more diverse than ever, and the vocational landscape within the denomination has..
When I became the director of the Lilly Endowment Clergy Renewal Programs in 2012, I inherited programs that had already been running..
I confess: Learning that the New Testament never uses the word stable or barn to describe where Jesus was born was borderline..
I have found the Christmas Eve sermon the hardest one to prepare. The biblical story has little to do with where listeners..
Guest commentary by Beth Brown In my world here in Chicago as the pastor of Lincoln Park Presbyterian Church, what the Supreme..
I think it would be accurate to say that most of life is lived and experienced in the in-between. While it may..
”This congregation has been in slow and steady decline since 1964. I don’t know if we have a future.” “I want the..
Hope as a verb is anemic, a flimsy little cobweb. “I hope it doesn’t rain today,” we say. Hope-as-a-verb doesn’t even have..
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