Latest Articles
Stammering praise: In good and not-so-good times
When I was a youngster my parents always took me to community Thanksgiving services. I was an unwilling and unhappy participant....
Good news: Sharing the gospel is easier than you think
Only 15 percent of American congregations have grown by even one person in the last five years, according to the Parish Paper newsletter....
Stopping traffic: What would Jesus drive?
Pastor Jim Ball has a message for car buyers. “Most people don’t think the kind of car they drive has anything to do with their faith....
Musical lives: Don and Emily Saliers on the religious power of song
Don Saliers holds the William R. Cannon Distinguished Chair in Theology and Worship at Emory University and directs the Masters of Sacred Music Program....
Way of life: Intentional reflection on the life of faith
From this theologian’s perspective, the central challenge for pastoral ministry today concerns the most important mark of good ministry: the ability effectively to mediate faith as an integral way ...
Into the niche: Targeted marketing
One of my classmates 50-plus years ago first taught me about niche marketing. A professor who monitored field work and internships wanted us to be modern....
On your mark: Mark 1:1-8
In my Swedish childhood, the signature image of Advent was Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
Back to the future: Fourth-century style reaches Bay Area seekers
A half hour before the Sunday morning service begins, St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco already displays the holy chaos that characterizes its worship....
It’s all relative?
This useful, engaging and distressing book by Louis Menand won the Pulitzer Prize for history in 2002....
Paul in the Roman World, by Robert M. Grant
Robert Grant's Paul in the Roman World provides something of a first-century sociological tour of Corinth....
Stigma of otherness
Centuries after the end of slavery and decades after the civil rights movement, why is the United States, which proclaims its profound commitment to a democratic vision of life, still marked by rac...
The Undoing of Death, by Fleming Rutledge
This is a superb compilation of 25 years worth of Fleming Rutledge's sermons. Three-fourths of the book focuses on Holy Week, and the balance addresses Easter Sunday and Eastertide....
Life with moms
Hollywood used to be highly efficient at turning out enjoyable melodramas, but that hasn't been the case for such a long time that White Oleander feels like an anomaly....
Sins of the fathers
Through the decades filmmakers from assorted countries have attempted to probe the inner lives of the clergy....
White House Christians: Faulty assumptions about faith and party affiliation
I am not immune to the seduction of being invited to a White House briefing, nor of being called a “religious leader,” so I flew to Washington in mid-October (at my own expense) and showed up as i...
Liberal in a conservative age: In memory of Pall Wellstone
Though his opponents tagged him as “embarrassingly liberal” and outside mainstream politics, Paul Wellstone won two terms as a U.S....
Can we all agree? Governing the WCC by consensus: Governing the WCC by consensus
For years church leaders have been looking for ways of conducting church business other than by parliamentary procedure....
Survival guide: Memo from a church consultant
Dear Congregation of the St. Pachomius Byzantine Orthodox Church: Pursuant to our contractual agreement dated August 1 of this year, I have completed my evaluation of your church....
Chaos in Colombia: Can the drug-funded war be stopped?
Though it is hard to imagine the situation in Colombia getting much worse, church leaders and human rights groups are warning that the violence is in fact increasing, and that a “dirty war” like th...