As the conversation invariably moved over to gun bans and gun control in the horrific wake of last Friday’s massacre, I recalled Jeff Goldberg’s piece in a recent Atlantic. There are 300 million guns already in the hands of Americans. Another 4 million new guns enter the market each year. The dog is off the leash [Read More…]
Church Without Meetings or Music
December 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment
A local pastor who recently left his church to launch a food market where individuals are invited to sponsor hungry families with money that then enables them to purchase food at a market where the food itself has been donated. Part of the idea is to counter the humility of poverty with a little dignity [Read More…]
Holy Discontent
December 5, 2012 by 122 Comments
In what has become an annual tradition with no connection to Elvis, churches around the country are sponsoring “blue Christmas” services aimed at people for whom the joys of the holiday season are elusive. Candles are still lit and ornaments hung, but they symbolize different things. For instance in one church, tree ornaments were pieces [Read More…]
With Malice Toward None
November 28, 2012 by Leave a Comment
I’m an Lincolnphile. Love Abe. I have all his books. Read all the biographies. Whenever I’m asked who in history I’d most want to meet if ever given the chance, I always say Abraham Lincoln even though I know I’m supposed to say Jesus. (Of course I believe I get to meet Jesus, so he’s [Read More…]
‘Tis the Season… To help out — some… within finite boundaries… in non-polarizing projects
November 16, 2012 by 130 Comments
Today’s guest blogger is Tim Conder, the founding pastor of Emmaus Way in Durham, NC. He is currently a PhD Candidate in “Culture, Curriculum, & Change” at the University of North Carolina. Tim is the author of Free for All: Rediscovering the Bible in Community and The Church in Transition: The Journey of Existing Churches [Read More…]
Petraeus, David Petraeus
November 14, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Following this week’s unfolding scandal involving former CIA Director and war hero David Petraeus brings unavoidable comparisons to James Bond. I haven’t seen Skyfall yet, but I hear it’s awesome and that it contains everything that makes a Bond movie Bond: sociopathic killing sprees with wicked awesome gadgetry, gorgeous women loved and left, clever asides and clear [Read More…]
Nothing Changes
November 7, 2012 by Leave a Comment
So, it’s late in the day after the long night at the end of the campaign that would never end and billions of dollars and tons of mud and on and on and we have the same president, same congress, same debt, same arguments, same everything, yesterday, today and forever. Remarkable, really. Whether this is [Read More…]
Sandy
October 31, 2012 by 139 Comments
I was supposed to fly to New York City tomorrow to preach at a church in Brooklyn. But they were hit by a hurricane on Monday (see fake picture at right). Best that they have their own pastor there on Sunday. Sandy was a magnificent storm. Had it stayed out at sea, we would have [Read More…]
Mali?
October 24, 2012 by 109 Comments
Not even four minutes into the last presidential debate, Mitt Romney mentioned Mali as a terrorism hot spot. I was proud that I knew where Mali was, though had no idea something bad had happened there. As it turns out, according to a post by Morgan Lorraine Roach, after Muammar Qadhafi’s defeat in Libya last October, [Read More…]
Hunting Satan
October 19, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Guest blogger Dawn Duncan Harrell is author of Ten Ways to Pray. You can find her here and read more here. “So is evil a force like gravity, the propensity to serve self at the expense of the other, or a person that tempts and oppresses humans like Satan?” my fellow reader asked. We were sitting—she [Read More…]
