On Writing What Does the Lord Require? Doing Justice, Loving Kindness, Walking Humbly by James C. Howell The idea of writing What Does the Lord Require? was not my own, but I welcomed the assignment and found the research, reflection, and writing to be intriguing. Like many people, I was... Continue reading

The word “feast” brings to mind a bountiful table laden with all sorts of mouth-watering food. At this time of year, we can already anticipate the annual Thanksgiving feast. As friends and family gather, either at Thanksgiving or another time, there is the opportunity for rich conversation as bread is... Continue reading

Working Through Transitions in Both Life and Work, by David Mosser I’m often asked why I wrote Transitions. I point to my experience as a senior pastor of a large United Methodist church. Part of being a pastor is connecting with other churches and pastors. So it’s not surprising that... Continue reading

Holy Week, Earth Day, and Choosing Life Tomorrow is Earth Day! This is great news and a wonderful way to reclaim and embody our ongoing commitment to transform the way we live in God’s Creation. As we re-commit ourselves to caring for the Earth, we are in the midst of... Continue reading

More Religious than Spiritual I was only four years old on April 16, 1972—the day of my baptism—but I remember this day. Momma, Daddy, and I stand in front of the sanctuary doors at the little Holy Cross Episcopal Church in Simpsonville, South Carolina. Daddy bends down to wipe dew... Continue reading

Incarnate Christ and Divine Presence in the Material World As we reflect on our faith in personal devotions and in corporate worship, we are reminded this Lenten season that we are walking this journey with an incarnate Savior, one who knows our earthen-vessel nature. We pray to a God who... Continue reading

Spiritual Health? What’s That? The biggest challenge I faced when writing my recent book, 99 Ways to Raise Spiritually Healthy Children was composing a definition of spiritual health. What is a spiritually healthy child, a spiritually healthy person of any age, really? As a way of offering a definition of... Continue reading

Lent, Earth Day, and Baptismal Promises to Children and Youth In our congregations we make pledges to care for the young people in our midst. For some of us, these are promises we make to infants-in-arms at their baptism; we become surrogate aunts and uncles of faith and promise to... Continue reading

The title of this book is of course controversial—intentionally so, because the issue itself is unavoidably controversial. The immediate answer that most Christians will want to give is, ‘Of course they did.’ And if they want to cite some evidence by way of proof, they may well turn immediately to... Continue reading

Sabbath and Earth Care A few years ago when I was sitting around a table with ministry colleagues, brainstorming a helpful congregational tool for earth care, we came up with the idea of a book of not 100 things, not 1,000 things, but 50 things we could do to help... Continue reading

Finding the Political Will to End Hunger “God is moving in our time to end hunger, and we are invited to be part of this great liberation.” —David Beckmann God suffers when one child dies, let alone when thousands die needlessly every day from hunger-related causes. Yet God is also... Continue reading

Lent and Earth Day As the spring breeze surrounds me on this welcome sunny day, I think about spring, about Earth Day approaching, and the somewhat conflicting observation that we are currently living in Lent. Earth Day seems, at first glance, not to be that closely connected to Lent. Earth... Continue reading

Enough with Politics as Usual! We Want Civility! We know now that political rhetoric probably had little to do directly with Jared Loughner's shooting of Rep. Gifford and eighteen others in Tucson in January. But it was gratifying to hear leaders respond to the tragedy by calling for renewed commitment... Continue reading

By now you may know that Ron Schiller, a fundraising executive for National Public Radio, said a few things that got him into trouble. He suggested that the right flank of the Republican party, particularly that which is affiliated with the Tea Party, is affected with a serious case of... Continue reading

 1 Samuel 20:1–21:16 Friendship I know someone now in her eighties who lived for forty or fifty years with a friend. They had separate jobs, but in the rest of life they were inseparable, involved together in church and social life and spending their holidays together. The friend had... Continue reading

 On a Journey with the Other Jesus I was raised in a tradition that focused almost exclusively on believing the right things and not doing the wrong things, a tradition that came to feel riddled with hypocrisy, with a too-close association to politics of a certain kind, and with... Continue reading

Bob Dylan and My Workingman’s Blues: Confessions of College Professor Michael J. Gilmour (Providence College, Canada) Columbia Records released Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits on March 27, 1967, within hours of my birth. Significant? A sign? It took me thirteen years to save the money but I eventually bought that record.... Continue reading

Sex Puzzles Embarrassing things can happen when one teaches a course on sex. Not long ago, I was standing and talking with a colleague in my college’s mailroom, a major campus thoroughfare. Suddenly, from one end of the room and above the hum of conversations, I heard one student yell... Continue reading

A friend recently asked me, “What motivated you to write What’s the Least I Can Believe and Still Be a Christian? A Guide to What Matters Most?” I have two answers to that question. First, I wrote the book for people like Shelly. In a recent e-mail to me she... Continue reading