“What are you and God working on?” In 1991, it was my privilege to attend the initial gathering of Renovare’, a church renewal movement organized by Richard Foster, perhaps most famous as the author of “Celebration of Discipline,” an international best seller. Renovare’ is from the Latin, but it looks like the word “renovate,” and…

Arthur Rouner, under whom I served in Minnesota, was fond of referring to Congregationalism as “The Pilgrim Way.” We are spiritual descendants of the Mayflower Pilgrims. But one of our characteristics is that in a sense, Congregational Christians “own” their church. This is certainly true legally, as the building and other property is not subject…

I received a very fun gift – a Charlie Brown Christmas Tree! With its solitary ornament dangling forlornly from a spindly twig of a branch, it is immortal in its representation of how Charlie Brown felt about himself. Yet in the final scene of the famous Charlie Brown Christmas TV special, the same gang of…