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Western Seminary students had both needs and assets. So did the wider community's adults with disabilities.

For all their problems, churches are often a good deal more self-critical and boldly innovative than seminaries.

"Parish priests had a lot of control over the speed at which things changed. Interestingly enough, the parishioners had no say over it."

Thomas thinks he should have been more suspicious of Lee and that his sermons should have had more of an effect on him. But these are not the immediate issues at hand.

Around 3:30, an SUV bearing the local TV station's logo pulled up. Thomas wondered how they knew about the service project.

China's leaders still speak implicitly against religions with strong foreign ties. Meanwhile, Christian theology thrives in China.

Some insist that the Christian-Muslim alliance evident during the overthrow of Mubarak remains strong. Yet Egypt is divided in many ways.

"I've been given an opportunity to color outside the lines," says Nanette Sawyer of Grace Commons and St James Presbyterian Church in Chicago, "the permission and charge to be creative and experimental."

Last year, Connecticut repealed the death penalty and California declined to. Americans are conflicted about capital punishment.

"How can you defend those people?" That's a question we public defenders hear a lot.

Is the goal of Zionism a democratic Israel with a Jewish majority? Or rule of the entire land, from the Mediterranean to the Jordan?

Four Tar Sands Blockade young people showed up at church one Sunday. They were hungry for fellowship and encouragement—and just hungry.

Obama embraces both the idealistic and realistic poles of Christian action. He recognizes with Niebuhr that politics is inherently tragic.

I once preached a Christmas sermon that struck out with one family. I had underestimated the peril of tampering with holiday sentiment.

We might still pray for rain, but we can account for thunder without invoking bowling gods. Is there still a place for God?

What is it about Western culture that makes it so difficult to taste God? Why would we rather prove propositions than experience the holy?

Maybe what sociologists call mainline decline is God pulling us away from external things so we can rediscover our union with God in love.

On Nov. 6, our church building was both a polling place and a place for worship. At some point I began to see the latter as the main event.

When I met Jonah I noticed two things: he was wracked with overwhelming guilt and very much wanted to die, and he knew the Bible.

You are about to enjoy a Christmas pageant in your congregation. Congratulations, and be sure to plan accordingly.