June 2021

Preaching Your Own Funeral, by Mike Glenn My wife and I began the difficult and humbling process of planning our funeral. Neither my mom nor my dad did any pre-planning. My dad's philosophy was, “I'll take care of it when I get there. He…

Temporary measures in times of crisis The first time in my life that I went “live” was on Saturday March 14, announcing that there would be no church in the morning. I'd been a pastor here for nearly eighteen years, but my head was…

"Making peace in times of crisis" “Oh Peace Train, take this country, come and take me home. Oh Peace Train sounds louder, soar on the Peace Train. Come on, Peace Train, yes, sacred Peace Train scroll. Everyone is jumping on the Peace…

If your beliefs don't change, you aren't growing. I was listening to a sermon on doubt this week, and the pastor made the above statement. I may not have quoted it perfectly, but you have this basic idea.…

When I first returned to Patheos in November 2020, I wrote an article about who I am and what you'll want to keep in mind as you read. In this entry, I've laid out 10 things, ground rules if you will, that you'll want to know before…

Skydiving in the United States, swimming with sharks in Curacao and climbing pyramids in Belize - Joni Wedderburn lives for adventure. But when the pandemic put travel privileges on hold, the adrenaline junkie took her…

Rhonda She always brought children's socks and soft toys to church. She munched on ice cubes during the service like popcorn at the movies. She always sat in the third row of a 1,000-person auditorium, and every Sunday she stacked these…

In some circles, there are two types of sermons or messages - topical or expository - and only one of them is acceptable. Let me explain. News posts are about, well, topics. Think about marriage, family,…

+5That all changed for John Rutter when he pointed his camera at the sky. “Cameras can see things our eyes just can't - intense colors, billions of stars, other galaxies and of course our home galaxy - the Milky Way,” said John, of…

It has been a difficult year. No one likes uncertainty, but it has been a year of uncertainty. We are not in control and we cannot force reality to follow our rules, or declare the virus nonexistent. The best we can do is take…