by Mona Eltahawy
I recently visited India to speak at a conference called “Future to the Responsibility”.
When I landed in Mumbai, a driver called Arun was fortunately waiting for me at the airport, armed with an umbrella for the rains which really taught me what a Monsoon is!
We had quite a long drive to the hotel […]
by Robert K. Martin
This is the third blog in a series I’ve called “Being church”. In this series I’ve tried to describe how church is actually a verb. When Christians gather together, we are not ‘church’ because we call ourselves a church or because we belong to a congregation or because we built a nice […]
by Robert K. Martin
A decisive moment in my shift to understanding church as a verb, as enacted, as an incarnational reality, occurred as we were tromping through the wilderness. Literally. In the middle of a North Carolina forest near Ashville, I had taken a group of divinity students on a wilderness adventure in which a […]
by David Bartlett
A few weeks ago I spent a few minutes reading yet another review of the recent works of the evangelical atheists—Harris, Dawkins and Hitchens. Now I have not read any of the books being reviewed, though I’ve read essays by each of those authors.
My general sense was that their image of the way in […]
by Susan Andrews
The Season of Passion has always been the most significant rhythm of the year for me as a spiritual pilgrim. One of my earliest memories of the church is sitting in the three hour Good Friday service – my Dad preaching one of the “seven last words” – and my mother singing, in […]
by Jessica Tate
It is a complicated week in the life of the church. A Holy Week, but a week that involves many things, with many mixed emotions.
There’s the excitement of Palm Sunday. Jesus enters Jerusalem and crowds gather to welcome him, to put down their cloaks, to shout hosanna, blessed is he! But even that excitement […]
by Jarrett McLaughlin
Last week, the session at my Church had the privilege of examining a young woman who was seeking our endorsement for Inquirer status within the Presbytery. While some may see this as a burdensome requirement of Presbyterian polity, I like to think of it as one of the great privileges of the call […]
by Robert Martin
Just last week, I returned from a 3 week trip to Nepal. Yes, that Nepal, one of the poorest countries in the world, sandwiched between India and China, split from its spiritual cousin, Tibet, by the towering majesty of Mount Everest and the rest of the Himalayan range. If you have perused the […]
by Tom Are
Jim Burklo got me thinking. In his most recent post (Progressive Christian Elevator Speeches) he identifies the difficulty congregations have these days in knowing how to talk about ourselves. Even more difficult is talking about ourselves in a way that makes sense to the community at large. We used to be the “Mainline […]
by Susan Andrews
Nine years ago – when I was 49 – I experienced the gift of a three month sabbatical. After 25 years of ministry and 25 years of marriage and 22 years of parenting, I was ready for a break. And so I put together 10 weeks of exploration – some into areas of […]
by Fred Weidmann
The continuing relevance of the great blues song, Stormy Monday, popularized by T. Bone Walker and re-popularized by the Allman Brothers and—on any given weekend—by various bar bands across the country, is self-evident. But what might it mean? One listens to the narrator’s voice work through the (fatalistic?) week, declaring Tuesday “just as […]
by Steve Rankin
“Kingdom of God” may well be one of the most common phrases in Christian parlance. According to the Gospel accounts, it was on Jesus’ mind and tongue a lot. A whole generation (at least) of theologians, church leaders and members sought to “bring in” the Kingdom by applying the ethical teachings of Jesus. […]
by Roy Howard
It used to be conventional wisdom to avoid religion and politics at gatherings of friends and family. Nowadays, it’s nearly impossible not to talk about them. I think that’s a good thing; after all, for people of faith their religious convictions, if they mean anything at all, certainly inform their political opinions. It’s […]
by Gordon McClellan
Editor’s Note: This is the transcript of a sermon preached on June 17, 2007. We have decided to publish it now, on the QTL blog, because of the on-going need for religion in America to allow itself to be defined by grace more than by hostility; by including rather than excluding; by humility […]
by Jarrett McLaughlin
Writing “Thank you” notes was never a personal strength of mine. It really wasn’t until I got married that I ever really wrote one. Suddenly, my wife Meg deposited into my lap a ten page spreadsheet of all the people we needed to thank for our wedding. Notes to the wedding guests were […]
by Roy Howard
John Updike once said he wanted to write with the same dedication as the monks whose vocation is to carve Psalms on the bottom side of choir seats. I can’t find the reference anymore but the quote has lived with me for years. Why? I imagine those beautifully carved choir seats that few […]
by Steve Rankin
We’ve become quite aware (and appropriately so) of the religious diversity around the world and in our neighborhoods. The upshot is a certain lack of confidence: if there are so many sincerely religious people and our visions of the divine (even using “divine” as the reference is problematic) are so diverse, how could […]
by Trevor Eppehimer
In a time in which the logic of the market carries over into religion as well as economics, religious leaders often feel pressure to tailor theology to meet the demands of the consumer-driven, spiritual marketplace. As a result, theological “hard truths” are often soft peddled, lest they adversely impact things like […]
by Jim Burklo
It was a cube consisting of many separate pieces of charred wood, each piece dangling from a thin black wire, hanging from the ceiling of the De Young Museum in San Francisco. This artwork by Cornelia Parker was entitled “Anti-Mass”. It was a compelling sight. It reminded me of the way blackened embers […]
by Meg Peery McLaughlin
They were traveling up the center aisle to see the body. Moving with faithful footsteps toward the one they dearly loved. Tears filled their eyes and they held tight to daughters and sisters as they came forward to view the deceased, hands folded calmly, suit freshly pressed.
I had lost the battle, you […]