We are only a week away from exclaiming, “Happy New Year!” I know you must be thinking that my forward planning has gotten out of hand and I’m in need of more coffee and a new calendar but bear with me. Advent is almost here. Rejoice! Yes, we’re a week away from the dawn of Advent, the first day of the new year in the Church’s calendar. The Church’s calendar has its own beautiful rhythm that redeems the time in our evil days. It begins with Advent, moves to Christmas and then Epiphany, on into a Lent that begins with Ash... Read this post

Since 9/11 the word ‘evil’ has regained some popular usage in our culture, and the painfully essential revelations about the abuse of children and women by men with power in religious, business, political, and entertainment spheres have reinforced our awareness that evil is real and has to be faced. Such language helps us to name an action and begin to deal with it in a just and proper way. The lynching of an African-American man by the Ku Klux Klan, the slaughter of Jews by Nazis, or the sexual abuse of a child is not merely “bad” or even “criminal”;... Read this post

In the past year, I’ve read with both pleasure and profit Rod Dreher’s book The Benedict Option. Mr. Dreher, a popular conservative columnist and Orthodox Christian, offers many helpful observations in this work and the book is one which needs to be read with care by Christian leaders across the variety of traditions. I nonetheless have significant reservations about the foundational aspect of Dreher’s observations and conclusions in regard to culture and civilization, namely the irreversible collapse of what is commonly referred to as Western Civilization. This ‘culture’, rooted in the fertile soil of both Christian and Enlightenment Europe, is... Read this post

So you want to say that you’re a ‘complementarian’? Ok… There’s nothing ‘complementarian’ about a man abusing a woman. Abuse of another human by a human is a sin. Abuse of a wife by a husband is this, as well as a degradation and denial of the beauty of Christ’s love for his Bride. Telling women to submit to abuse by their husbands is a distortion of Scripture. That people use Jesus’ teaching on divorce – which in context was offered to prevent the abuse of wives by husbands – and turn it into a mechanism by which wives are... Read this post

My good friend Cara Dublin has written a great little reflection on her experience of celebrating Pentecost Sunday last week at her church, Redeemer Presbyterian in Austin, Texas. I asked her if I could pass it along and she graciously agreed. Here it is! A Pentecost Story Today was Pentecost Sunday- stormy and threatening rain. During the first service, distant thunder had been rumbling. When we got to the central reading for the day, Acts 2, and the elder reading at the lectern came to the verse “And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in... Read this post

“And the winner is…” I love those words! It’s Oscar time once again. This Sunday night I’ll be tuned in and switched on to the Oscars, the awards show that drives some people batty but which cannot be ignored in terms of artistic talent, the national mood, and cultural commentary. As for me, I just love film, and while I’m a supporter of  Indies and so look on the big studio work with a certain measure of mocking envy, I’m also aware of how impressive the work of these artists can be. I will cheer – or groan along with everyone else. While 2017... Read this post

Gracious Father, Bloodshed in our classrooms is is erupting again. I confess that I am angry about this. I am overwhelmed with grief, and I am also afraid at times. I fear for my own child in a school, for the people attending worship services, for all of us just doing what we do in the course of life but always under the dark shadow of gun violence. I long for the day when no more tears will have to be shed and funerals held for children slain in a school. I long for the day when the horrifying images... Read this post

Let’s suppose there’s a terrible earthquake that strikes a major city, killing hundreds and leaving thousands more homeless, with hunger, thirst, and disease becoming a real threat because of damage to infrastructure. Should we send ‘thoughts and prayers’? Of course, we should. We must pray. Then we get busy as we continue to pray. We send teams of emergency workers to help dig through the rubble, medical personnel to assist with the injured, food and water to sustain those in need, set up shelters for those without any, give blood and money, sweat and tears, and work to create laws... Read this post

Just after his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, the FBI noted this about Dr Martin Luther King Jr. In the light of King’s powerful demagogic speech yesterday he stands heads and shoulders over all other Negro leaders put together when it comes to influencing great masses of Negros. We must mark him now, if we have not done so before, as the most dangerous Negro of the future in this nation from the standpoint of communism, the Negro, and national security.

There are some really important but too often forgotten ministries in the Church. I have sweet memories of people, many of whose names I don’t recall or never knew, who brought me Jesus in countless, beautiful ways. Their ministries are often unseen but make an incredible difference. Every church has these beautiful people – maybe you’re one of them! Take the gentleman who sat in the row ahead of our family when I was a little boy. He would turn around during the service and ‘sneak’ me a mint or small candy. He did this, I’m sure, not only because... Read this post