Sunday school is dying. And that’s OK. Technically, the whole church is dying in the Western world. Few expect the church to actually die, however. Religion remains a uniquely powerful force in human...
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There’s this mildly irritating phrase that I have encountered with some frequency over the course of the decade or so that I have been a pastor. I’m sure you’ve encountered something like it in your own...
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The Korean Christian churches are an intriguing phenomenon of the past 100 years. Protestant Christianity arrived in Korea only after 1880, but the Korean church has flourished since then in ways that have...
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A new book is out on the state of the church in Canada. The picture it paints is pretty grim. Called Leaving Christianity: Changing Allegiances in Canada Since 1945, the book by professors Brian Clarke and...
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While most of us agree that healthy congregations need to use all of the varied and multiple gifts of its members, Mennonites have generally adopted the Protestant practice of elevating pastors to a special...
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The issue on the table today is how often we should celebrate the Lord’s Supper. Whether we call it Mass, Communion, Eucharist or the Lord’s Supper, how often? Here’s a reality: Some today are weekly...
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I was recently exploring how different institutions use vision statements to appeal to their audience. One statement stood out to me from a college that professes Christianity in New York: “We exist to...
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Pastors in the USA have learned that church and state are separate. They have learned not to support candidates or a political party from the church or in their public ministries connected to the church. At...
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What do Facebook and Twitter have in common with the Protestant Reformation? Nothing and everything. Oct. 31 is the 500-year anniversary of the German monk and professor Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses to...
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Nonviolence is the decision to live without committing homicidal violence. It is comparable to the familiar choices to live without committing rape, or slavery or robbery. The decision to live without killing...
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During the 1980s, I worked as a civil legal aid attorney for indigent men and women. Their legal claims concerned debt relief and access to health care, food and housing. More than any other time in my life,...
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One Sunday morning some years ago, I leaned against the back of a church pew, and with tears in my eyes confided to a friend. This woman is a sincere Christian, even though she’s not a member of our...
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What great lessons this month for antiracism and breaking down racial-ethnic barriers! When the Greek-speaking Jews complained their widows were being slighted in the distribution of food, the apostles...
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One and a half billion dollars. That’s how much the places of worship are worth in Winnipeg, Man., where I live. That figure comes from what is called the “halo effect,” the value of the social,...
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It was the liturgy that first warmed my heart. I tried to be cautious, not to fall in love too quickly. How long should one wait to call a church one’s home? I still don’t know the answer to that question....
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A long time ago in the big city, I was a graduate student studying the New Testament. My wife and I had another student and his wife over for supper, and we were talking shop: Bible and theology, church and...
[read more]Unity has been given us by the Holy Spirit. It is a gift. We are commanded to keep the unity of the Spirit (Eph. 4:3). The vows we made in marriage did not say “until we disagree.” It is until death...
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Today after I got dressed and I looked in the mirror, I just “felt” German Baptist. I don’t expect anyone to understand that feeling, and maybe I’m putting far too much into what fellowship I’m...
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Aunt Grace made her first appearance years ago. She reappears at the sound of pompousness. Aunt Grace is the creation of a friend. I imagine her with grey permed hair and gaudy red lipstick. She entered the...
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Joy strikes out of the blue nothingness. You can’t expect it or manufacture it or capture it. For Christians, the completeness of our joy comes from Jesus. After he taught on his abiding in us and our...
[read more]For several decades Mennonites have spent an enormous amount of energy and resources deciding the best way to organize. Has it brought us to a better end? My sense is we are more divided than ever. Is all this...
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I’d like to try to point out, as a progressive Christian, something that has been bothering me about progressive Christian political theology — a paradox, tension and inconsistency that keeps popping...
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From time to time, I walk alongside people wrestling through the question of whether they should start attending a different church group. I sympathize, because I have been there myself, and know that it can...
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According to our local phone directory, there are numerous churches with names of spiritual greats, Saints Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; Saints Michael, Andrew, James and Stephen; and the Saints Peter, Paul...
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“Hey, pastor, what do you have to say about this graffiti? What do you think it means?” The question came from the teenage son of our German friends as we were walking around the old town of Rethymnon on a...
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