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"The big struggle for me as a young person was how to be someone who was interested in creativity and art and not losing one's faith to do it."

Like many baptized, praying Christians her age, my daughter is not a regular churchgoer. What difference does it make?

A couple Sundays ago, I performed a baptism. As baptisms go, it wasn't the usual fare. I've baptized babies and very little ones, and that's a delight, utterly different every time. I've welcomed adults into the fellowship of the faith, and watched as the water that poured down their faces mingled with tears of joy. But I've never baptized a kid before.

New today from the Century: Amy Frykholm reviews Carlene Bauer, Rodney Clapp on Christians without church, more.

Last week, ghosts, superheroes and zombies walked our neighborhoods in search of treats. But the holiday for dwelling in the possibility of the spooky is a fleeting thing. Halloween has come and gone. Yet the zombies remain. They shamble on in our popular culture all year long.

Carlene Bauer's characters create each other as pieces of their imaginations. They do the same thing with God.

c. 2013 Religion News Service...

I have conversations with a wide variety of clergy colleagues. But they're all the same conversation: "Is it well with your soul?"

In elevated, beautiful language God promises to create new heavens and a new earth. The problems and pain, the injustice and hunger, the longing and the loneliness—all will be vanquished!...

A few years ago I started to get a lot of affirmation for my preaching. People were listening, worship attendance was growing, and I was overhearing parishioners describe me as a good preacher. Soon this shaped my pastoral identity and led me to claim preaching as my “thing.” This prompted me to attend a large preaching conference, to learn from the best in my field.

New today from the Century: Sam Wells on ministry without God, Teri McDowell Ott on what a writing workshop did for her preaching, more.

In my article on alternatives to the Revised Common Lectionary, I praised the African American Lectionary's extensive resources, but I didn't really describe them in any detail. There is a wealth of good stuff on the AAL website. The AAL is based on weekly themes, many of which do not correspond to the liturgical calendar the RCL follows. This Sunday is Caregivers Day, one of several new AAL observances this year.

c. 2013 Religion News Service...

When my daughter broke her femur, it seemed clear that we shouldn't conceive another child who might inherit my bone disorder. That clarity was short-lived.

Job describes “an iron pen” with which words could be “engraved on a rock forever.” Few writers have such a pen. Even C. S. Lewis might well have been surprised that The Screwtape Letters has enjoyed such a long life. 

Some of my favorite early memories involve the Washington Redskins. For as long as I remember, I’ve watched games on Sundays. My father is a Washington, D.C....

New today from the Century: Ellen Painter Dollar on disability and parents' tough choices, Emily Heath on her football team and its offensive name, more.

It is extremely limiting to think of Albert Camus as an existentialist philosopher of the absurd....

Reading or writing a poem requires that we step out of ourselves—which can be dangerous. It's the same thing I do as a foreign correspondent.

New today from the Century: Eliza Griswold on writing journalism and poetry, Steve Thorngate on food stamps, more.