Depending on what time you arrive, the first thing you might notice about Istanbul is the distinct Muslim call to prayer. It happens five times a day: twice in the morning, once at noon, and twice in the evening. The singing Imam’s voice projects from each mosque’s amplification system. In...

Upon my waking this was the dream: - We were in a room with a youth group of some sort. High school, college. Maybe 50-75 in numbers. One gal was speaking. It was not someone I recognized. She had an eraser in her hand and she was speaking about the power of prayer. To prove her point about how effective...

Image via http://ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=1123970 As the debate rages on over whether the Muslim community center Park51, better known by the misnomer the “Ground Zero Mosque,” should be allowed to be constructed near the former cite of the World Trade Center, little media...

I recently saw the DVD trailer for the movie, “Eat, Pray, Love” that came out last summer. It is the screen adaptation of the widely popular memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert of her year spent traveling the world in search of healing and renewal after a divorce. Julia Roberts plays Gilbert and the...

I’m tempted to write a satire called Christian New Year’s Resolutions.  It would go something like this: Pray without ceasing.  Ever. Don’t watch secular television. Become a physically fit Proverbs 31 woman. Read the bible every day and nothing besides it. Go to church every Sunday. Is there...

I wanted them to cancel church. I am not saying I wanted them to close the doors. That’s not what I mean. I’m talking about forgetting the music and sermon they spent the week planning. I wanted Pastor to call us together as a body and say, “You know what? We aren’t going to do any of the stuff...

If there’s a time for everything, then there’s a time for grenades of darkness to pummel our souls, battering the illusions we’ve built and exposing the raw pain of evil in this world.  Some weeks, some days, pastors are right in the thick of the battle, absorbing the explosion.  This...

Alone, these three words are enough to spark debates and arguments that will continue into the wee hours of the morning. Depending upon who you aretalking to, you may be conversing for months. Years. I am writing because, last Sunday night left something of a bittersweet taste in my mouth: sweet, in...

My church is offering what might be an unusual parenting class. There is a psychology professor in town who goes to our church, and we’ve got her presenting a Sunday School class that emphasizes adolescent brain development. I suspect that this class is unusual for two reasons. First, most parents...

January 20, 2009 was a day that I’ll always remember.  We brought up a TV so everyone—from the library patrons to the staff—could watch the inauguration of Barack Obama.  Despite a heated and sometimes vicious election season, we watched the inauguration not as Democrats and Republicans, but...