There is little doubt what Jesus meant when he lectured from the hillside that money is the root of all evil. Wait a second—don’t make any memes based on that quite yet. Because Jesus’ monetary remark from the Sermon on the Mount was actually about the impossibility of serving two masters, God and money. And while there are indeed a few references in Matthew 6 related to ethical financial living, as well as to sartorial sparrows, very few consider this... Read more
by Todd A. Comer “Why Am I an Ex-Postmodernist? Perhaps because—even though ‘we’ postmodernists are well aware of this problem—somehow hospitality had become romanticized for me. Or, perhaps, postmodernism was never for me anything but the product of white, male privilege?” I began my graduate studies at Michigan State University in 1998, and it wasn’t long before I had lost myself gloriously in what was then known, shorthand, as “theory”. For me, theory meant continental philosophy, the postmodern writings of a... Read more
Just over a year ago, under a midnight sky, African American artist Cbabi Bayoc stood alone, painting at the cross-section of Canfield Drive and West Florissant Avenue in St. Louis, Missouri, not far from where police officer Darren Wilson killed Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old African American male, just a few weeks earlier on August 9, 2014. A single streetlight spread its amber hue on the canvas while Bayoc worked. Bayoc finished the painting on November 24, 2014, the same... Read more
[Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series of posts we’ll be featuring by the Rev. Deborah Dean-Ware, who was diagnosed with breast cancer last May.] I ordered this book, not so much for its wisdom (though there is plenty of wisdom in it), but for its title. I laughed out loud when I saw it, and I knew that I needed to get it for my little guy. It seemed the perfect way to break the ice when telling Josiah that I have cancer. Oh, you... Read more
The relentless religious decline of my fellow Americans doesn’t really surprise me — even as I am one who loves the church, claims it as my spiritual home, and wonders why people don’t “get it” the way do. It’s just that I know too many perfectly wonderful people – friends, family, colleagues – who simply hold zero to little interest in going to church or affiliating with a faith that is so often seen as being hypocritical, judgmental, and exclusive, not to mention irrelevant,... Read more
It never changes. At every event, at every workshop, in so many of our sanctuaries and board rooms the conversation is all the same. Seemingly daily new books are published which contain some version of a response to the same conversation. “The Church is Dying! What do we do? What’s next? How will we make it?” Congregational “death” and its subsequent “transformation” have become the buzzwords of the Ecclesiastical enterprise in which we live, breath, move, and work. For so... Read more
by Glenn Zuber The recent May 12th Pew poll (“America’s Changing Religious Landscape”) added a new wrinkle to the familiar debate over why established, traditional U.S. churches aren’t attracting younger generations like they used to in the 1950s. It turns out that Millennials more than Baby Boomers and Gen Xers don’t trust institutions of any kind and so they are cutting ties with most of them. Churches are asking a new question in light of this poll: Can we buck this trend and attract... Read more
What if the people leaving the Church are the collective voice of God to us, the Church, today? This question offered by Mark Sandlin in his post for our new series on The Future of Progressive Christianity sets the tone for a frank, deeply thoughtful, and ultimately inspiring symposium at Patheos this week. Mark’s lead question, firmly grounded in the reality of the last Pew Research Center survey conceding a continuing and steady decline of the mainline protestant church, yet still begs a hopeful response — if one... Read more
[Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of posts we’ll be featuring by the Rev. Deborah Dean-Ware, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in May.] For 15 years, I have worked 48 Sunday mornings each year. That is 720 Sundays out of 780. The vast majority of these 720 Sundays working have been spent leading worship (other Sundays were spent on mission trips, continuing education, retreats, etc). That means that in my 15 years as a pastor, I have... Read more
Do you recognize Sandra Annette Bland? Do you see yourself when you look at the face of this 28-year-old black woman, this young adult who died in a police cell on July 13, 2105? Do you see your daughter, your baby girl, your smart, beautiful baby girl, your baby girl? Do you see your sister, your aunt, a member of your youth group, a cousin, a mother, a colleague, your “sor” — sorority sister? Who do you see when you... Read more
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