A couple of years ago, upon hearing that my brother was in the latter stages of kidney failure, I thought, “I want him to have one of mine.” After my retirement in December, 2013, I figured the time had come to see about making this happen. My brother had already invited me to spend the summer with him in Thousand Oaks, CA, to get out of the summer heat and enjoy the delights of that area. I told him I... Read more
“Do you want to be well?” Jesus asks this of the man who had been ill for 38 years. In the John 5 story, the man doesn’t answer the question but instead gives an excuse: no one would help him. Jesus ignores the excuse and tells the man to stand up, take up his mat, and walk. He does. I’ve thought often about how this man’s life changed. He had neither walked nor worked. He’d spent his life begging, never... Read more
The Cowboy Church has done a spectacular job of contextualizing itself to the community. They are not trying to be all things to all people, but to be something to a selected group. They started in a barn, with cats underfoot and horses in the stalls. They built a church and it burned. They rebuilt it while meeting in a nearby elementary school. On the Sunday after Christmas, traditionally a low attendance day, the Denton County Cowboy Church saw a... Read more
“I refused to read your column because the [print] headline said ‘Xmas’ not Christmas. I shall now start referring to you as X-ty rather than ‘Christy’.” “After reading your column, I wish you had skipped FUMC-Denton.” Both of these comments came from long-time readers of my popular weekly religion column in the Denton Record Chronicle. Both came from people who are long time church members and would very much consider themselves good Christians and disciples of Jesus. The second writer, after... Read more
I recently received a note from someone I knew years ago but have not seen in decades. The last time we had spoken, we had discussed our mutual interest in what it might mean to live as Christian people, giving much more than simple lip service to the things we said were vitally important to us. He wrote to me about that conversation, “That time with you made so much difference in my life. I became much more active with... Read more
” . . . ritual isn’t about expressing religious commitment at all, but about doing something in a way that marks the moment as different from the everyday and forces you to see it as important.” That quote came from an article about “Religion without God” that speaks of a growing movement of atheists to gather for “church” services. As one person put it, “Singing awesome songs, hearing interesting talks, thinking about improving yourself and helping other people — and doing... Read more
‘Twas the day after Christmas and all through the house all the creatures were bloated, down to the last mouse. The boxes were scattered, empty and bare in hopes that the trash man soon would be there. The children were fighting over stuff in their beds while visions of escape danced in their heads. And Mama in her bathrobe and I in my cap, are hoping for football or a long quiet nap. Yep, the day after Christmas, the post-holiday... Read more
The UMC disaster: we are self-destructing instead of splitting. Intentionally over-simplifying the situation, there are two general positions. Each side stands firmly in its own bubble, not respecting the legitimately reached perspectives of the other. Note: this is the third of a three-part post. Part One: Reflections One Year Post Retirement: Out of the Christian Bubble. is here. Part Two: Into the Sapphire Bubble is here. Let’s move momentarily from this very personal and private experience to public problems facing... Read more
Note: this is the second of a three part post. Part One: Reflections on Retirement: Out of the Christian Bubble is here. Part Three, From the Personal to the Public, the UMC Disaster, is here. So this smart, successful and opinionated Polish/Catholic/Jew and I stand on opposite ends of the political divide. Hardly the only difference between us, but certainly a major one. And we argue a lot about this. Except . . . he refuses to call our grenade-lobbying interchanges “arguments”... Read more
As I walked through those doors, I saw my Christian bubble becoming thinner, far more permeable to the words and ideas of others, and less attractive to me. Note: this is the first of a three part post. Part Two: Into the Sapphire Bubble is here. Part Three, From the Personal to the Public, the UMC Disaster, is here. On December 29, 2013, I said “goodbye” to the very much beloved congregation in Krum, TX, where I had served since 2006. ... Read more
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