Is there a right or wrong way to grieve? Is it possible to get “stuck” in grief? For many Christians, November 1 is All Saint’s Day, and November 2 is All Soul’s Day. It’s a time for remembering your departed loved ones, and for dealing with your grief. In this article, I’ll discuss whether you’re grieving in a healthy way. I’ll talk about how to know it’s time to get some help in your grief work. People Say the Stupidest... Read more
Deconstruction is not a new movement. Plato’s allegory of the cave is an ancient story about emerging from the darkness of old beliefs, into the light of new truth. Plato’s Parable Once upon a time, said Plato, there was a cave. Inside the cave lived a group of men, held captive in chains. All they had ever known was life in the cave. Bound in foot stocks, they were forced to face the cavern’s rear wall. At their backs... Read more
Fundamentalism shoots itself in the foot by telling people that they can’t be good Christians unless they believe in a narrow-minded set of doctrines. You’ve heard people say that you can’t claim you believe the Bible at all unless you believe all of the Bible. And by this, they mean their own limited and literalistic interpretation of it. If you disagree with even one point, they say, then you have essentially left of faith. And then they wonder why so... Read more
Is Halloween really Satan’s holiday? When I was a kid that’s what I was told. If you were raised in a conservative Christian church, maybe you were taught the same thing. On October 31, we walked around with a sense of dread all day, knowing that this one day out of the year belong to the devil. Terrible, evil things happened on Halloween, we were told. For a Christian to celebrate Halloween is tantamount to worshiping the devil, we were... Read more
These days it seems like everything is polarized. It’s Republicans versus Democrats, pro-life versus pro-choice, gun rights advocates versus gun control advocates, Black Lives Matter versus Blue Lives Matter. With all this black and blue, maybe you’re feeling a bit bruised. If you grew up in a Christian home, you might have been raised with binary thinking too. If you came to the faith later in life, you’ve definitely picked up on it. The Bible has a lot of binary... Read more
Fun-damn-mentalists enjoy scaring the Hell out of people. They love the idea of people burning in Hell. It makes them feel superior to all the “unsaved” people. They get a sick pleasure out of eternal conscious torment at the hands of an angry, violent God. As a pastor, I grew tired of the constant demand for violent sermons. “We want you to preach some fire and brimstone sermons, preacher. That’ll get the blood boiling!” The problem was that serving a... Read more
If you missed Clergy Appreciation Day (October 9, 2022), don’t worry—your church can still show your minister that you care before the end of October. The whole month is Pastor Appreciation Month. Click here to read my article, “22 Ideas for Clergy Appreciation Day.” Your church still has time to use some of these ideas. Many of these require policies or actions on the part of your entire congregation. If you want a more personal touch, something you can do... Read more
Clergy Appreciation Day in 2022 is October 9th and your minister is well aware of that. She appreciates it when your church recognizes the work she does. He feels terribly hurt when the church goes the whole month and forgets. Your pastor gets a pointed reminder when their ministry friends talk about the lovely things their congregants did for them, but nobody in your church even thought about it. In my article, “Pastors are Quiet Quitting the Church,” I discussed the... Read more
Many pastors are quiet quitting the church. If you’re unfamiliar with that term, it’s come up a lot lately in reference to the Great Resignation. Employers are realizing that, just like the Twisted Sister song, their employees are “not gonna take it anymore.” Partially due to COVID, but more due to economic and work environment factors, employees are quitting in droves. But many who can’t afford to actually are quiet quitting. Countless ministers have joined in the Great Resignation. Many... Read more
What do you say to people experiencing homelessness when they speak to you on the street? You might say, “Sorry, I don’t carry cash.” Or “Get away from my door!” Jesus brought his disciples to a region called the Gerasenes. There, they encountered someone without a home, and abandoned by society. What Jesus said to the homeless man changed his life. In this article, I’ll talk about how we can respond more like Jesus. I am a behavioral health specialist... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In