“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…
Christ Centered, Community Focused
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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…
It was Christmastime, 1976. My father had died suddenly of a heart attack at age 46 just 6 weeks before. We were staggered. I was limping through my senior year of high school, sometimes stalled by grief, sometimes able to carry on well, until I felt guilty for not remembering my father. My mother, just…
The largest headlines of this past week have all concerned fair play. Play in the literal sense is involved in the International Olympic Committee’s announcement that Russia would not be allowed to field a team at the upcoming Winter Olympics. This was in response to the revelation of wide-spread doping of Russian athletes. The decision…
If you’ve been inside a retail store in the last month and a half, chances are you’ve already been inundated with more Christmas music than you know what to do with. From the less than inspiring tones of “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer” to beautiful sacred tunes like “Angels We Have Heard on…
God’s Hemming Palm. In Psalm 139, David is reflecting on his life, and on God’s extraordinary faithfulness to him. He says, “You hem me in, behind and before.” We often talk about knowing the blessing and protection of being in the Palm of God’s hand. What’s more, not only does Jesus sit at the right…