On a phone call a few days ago a friend was telling us of a trip she had made to Africa. Rhonda had gone to accompany a group of university students on a short-term mission trip. They would be out in the bush, teaching Bible classes, telling stories to the children, and even setting up […]

I don’t know if you’ve followed the new video series on the life of Christ entitled, “The Chosen.” It has received a lot of accolades. The first season was produced in eight segments and it will continue next season with at least that many more. It has much to commend it. The script is sensitive […]

According to some church-watchers, about one out of every five Christian churches in North America will close their doors in the next year and sell the building. Not a happy prospect. It’s true that a wimpy, feeble, member-centric church is not always an honor to God, but closing it is not the only option. We […]

If you were expecting an easy trip, you signed on with the wrong travel agency. I mean, locked down for a year in a boat full of animals? (With no TV, no jogging trails, hardly any windows…) Or walking around in circles for forty years with a couple of million other whining citizens, plus all […]

I remember when one of my professors, speaking to a class of young preachers, was expounding on the word “parson.” He droned on about how it’s an old English word that is drawn from the word “person.” In early England the parson was the person. He was likely the most schooled citizen in the community, […]

I like the term “redemptive conversations.” Sounds friendly. Sounds neighborly; spiritual. What sometimes slows me down is that I worry I might not get it just right and it would turn out to be awkward. We’ve all met members of the God Squad who come across like a 7:00am marketing call. You’re not interested in […]

The door has been flung open, have you noticed? Well, maybe it’s more accurate to say the doors have been flung shut. But the windows have been opened. You likely couldn’t use your church building this past weekend, but since when have we allowed the church to be defined as a building? Most of the […]

My cousin, Norman, and I grew up living just a few blocks from each other in one of the beautiful cities of the Northwest. I was six months older than he was but when you’re eight that doesn’t matter much. We were buds. His family moved away; then we did, too. We kept in touch […]

Did you see the post of the elderly lady whose husband was quarantined in a retirement center? Because of the Covid-19 she couldn’t go in to be at his bedside, so she went to the window of his room and waved to him through the glass. The picture broke my heart. But that’s what you […]

Right out of seminary another pastor and I served a district of five churches. He was the senior and I was the intern so I pretty much looked after the three small churches and he oversaw the two larger ones. I drove a lot of miles that year. The first time I visited the smallest […]