Jesus, bless Him, had a habit of eating out and drinking with certain types of people it was considered inappropriate for him to be seen with. It annoyed people, mostly his inner circle of friends, and they sometimes told him how annoyed they were about it. No, not only did the weirdoes have Jesus over...

In early May 2011, a majority of the 173 presbyteries of the Presbyterian Church (USA) had approved a change to the ordination standards.  The amendment will remove the constitutional requirement that all ministers, elders, and deacons live in “fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a...

A couple of years ago my wife introduced me to Chuck, a spy comedy with nerdy pop culture references she promised we both would find appealing. I was amused by the references, but to be honest, I found the rest of it silly. However, there are few things my wife and I can watch together, so we sat and...

None of us knew what had caused the war–the explosions, the devastation, all of it. It happened too fast, and for whatever reason all of us who survived had been too busy to stay informed enough to venture a guess, educated or not, as to the cause. We knew it was over and besides our group there...

To the tune of the prayer of St. Francis of Asissi; we sing it silently as we live among one another. Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. One that diminishes hatred and crescendos love. One that fills the backbeat of every injury with pardon. One that harmonizes every doubt with a root note of...

The first small group my wife and I led was over in a matter of weeks. One couple moved from Chicago to Seattle. Another couple moved from Chicago to Dallas. The fact wasn’t lost on us that people would rather endure a cross-country move than remain in community with us. With time, however, we recognized...

My day started at the women’s maximum security state prison.  In the area that I live there is a men’s and women’s maximum security prison.  I just so happened to have moved in across the street from the men’s maximum security prison, as you may have read, and sure enough a few weeks later...

The first time I realized that I liked meta humor happened during my teen years while watching a syndicated rerun of Growing Pains. Mike Seaver was usually the troublemaker and subject of disciplinary-inclined plots, but in this particular episode he was off the hook until near the end when he blurted...

From the beginning we are told that God is good, he loves us and wants the best for us. Then, anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear and a heart to break can look around at this horrible world—one of power struggles, natural disasters and disease, racial and religious animosity, the buying and selling...

I’ve been a Christian for almost thirty years, and think that I’ve only just begun to understand Christian discipleship, as opposed to franchise Christianity. The two are quite different. My way of seeing, being and doing is changing; I put it down to living closer to Christ’s actual words and...