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But why not all of them? Surely that’s the biblical answer to the “how many can we take?” question. Every single last one.

Somewhere down where we don’t like to go, is a place where racism lives. It’s automatic and hidden. Binding and resistant to change. No matter how well-meaning we are, no matter how open-minded. Like the “root kit” on a computer, racism is hidden and operating without our knowledge.

Like any organization, churches tend to depend on effective leadership. Without effective leaders, churches are unable to make necessary decisions, to deal with changing situations, to hire effective staff, to allocate resources, to deal with conflict, and to prevent bullies from hurting constituents.

As we enter the 2016 election year and primary voting gets under way in the next few weeks, it’s important to consider the relationship between progressive faith and politics… The key insight of progressive faith, whether Christian or otherwise, is a healthy skepticism of any one political figure acting as a messianic savior.

John Robinson takes on a challenge that befuddles most of us in this interesting and even challenging book, Breakthrough. How does a scientist, or in this case a psychologist, deal with someone who has had a deeply, life changing spiritual experience, and yet has had no religious or spiritual experience himself. Most professional psychologist are not trained for this kind of thing, and Tom was no exception.

  [In “Forward to the Basics,” we are taking a fresh look at best practices in the critical areas of church life. This week: Membership Development.] Any church can grow. Any church can have a lively community. …

Since the very beginning, Xavier Rudd’s ability to connect with people has been his most powerful gift. The more he has toured the world, the more hearts he has touched and the more of the world he has put back into his music.

Even if there are dimensions of reality as yet unrecognized by our limited perceptions, that doesn’t make them magical or supernatural, just unperceived. I for one am hoping against hope that death is but an entrance into another dimension of existence. If not, the life I’ve been given is miracle enough.

Since the very beginning, Xavier Rudd’s ability to connect with people has been his most powerful gift. The more he has toured the world, the more hearts he has touched and the more of the world he has put back into his music.

Forget going “back to the basics.” Time never goes backward. Instead, let’s go “forward to the basics.”

Specifically, let’s spend the next few weeks grounding ourselves in the basic “best practices” that, if implemented, will help your congregation to become healthy, to grow in mission, ministry and membership, and to do God’s desired work of transforming lives.

Martin Luther King’s actual birthday is January 15th, and I believe if MLK were alive today he would be witnessing a country scapegoating its fears on the backs of immigrants and Muslims.

The Patience Stone … about a stone into which you can shed your misfortunes, your complaints, and your troubles until it’s so full it bursts.

Although Christmas is mostly thought of in terms of feasting and celebrating, Jesus’s, birth — like his death — was born of struggle, and that struggle was to be fully accepted. Similarly, when I think of the birth of Jesus, one of the themes that looms large for me is LGBTQ youth and young adult homelessness.

We are called to have faith and to prepare for the coming of Christ in our world.
But we too often imagine a babe in a manger than a true commitment to repenting of our lifestyles of wanting and having more than enough.

Statistics often create as much fog and distortion as clarity and accuracy. But sometimes salient stats leap off the page.

This Sunday, the Feast of St. Nicholas, the ancient precursor to the modern Santa Claus, will pass without much ado. Some will try to encourage us to resurrect St. Nicholas to save us all from Santa’s powers for we have gone astray. To those well meaning souls who would rid Christmas of its flagrant consumerism, I can only offer up a feeble, “Baa Humbug!”

In a city whose soul is bleeding from the acts of terrorists, world leaders are meeting to discuss the fate of an Earth whose soul is also bleeding–bleeding from exploitation, from our civilization’s relentless pursuit of materialism. These leaders will discuss carbon emissions and the global rise of temperature, but I doubt they will dare to discuss the deeper malaise of a civilization whose only goal seems to be economic progress.

We should train people to be good stewards. Train them in the Biblical tithe, for example. Train them to give without expecting to control spending. Train them to give to God, in gratitude for God’s blessings, not to the budget.