Author: Michelle Van Loon
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At The Intersection of Time & Eternity: Ordinary Time
It sounds so basic, doesn’t it? After the drama of those mountains and valleys between Advent through Pentecost, “Ordinary Time” sounds like a long, dreary drive across North Dakota. Those of us in congregations not using the church calendar are familiar with the high points of the first half of the Christian year: Christmas and Easter. Ordinary…
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The Successor To WWJD
The quintessential 90’s Christian accessories, the WWJD bracelet, T-shirt, Bible cover, bumper sticker (and today, an app) were all derived from the 1896 book penned by Charles Sheldon entitled In His Steps: What Would Jesus Do? The titular question got a lot of people pondering what their choices might look like if they’d act as…
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At The Intersection Of Time & Eternity: Pentecost
He told them to wait. Wait for who? Every time I read the account of the first Pentecost, I’m struck by the fact that Jesus’ followers had no clear picture of exactly who or what they were waiting for. But the risen Messiah told them to wait, so that’s exactly what they did. On one…
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In Search Of Mercy
Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men–robbers, evildoers, adulterers–or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all…
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Post-Church Church Leaders: Now What?
What do these people have in common? The single woman in her mid-thirties with $40,000 worth of seminary debt now working as an office manager for a software vendor. The former youth pastor now installing replacement windows for a home-improvement company. The veteran minister with 20 years of pastoral experience now an anonymous attender at…
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Welcome To Zebra World!
“When you hear hoofbeats, think of horses not zebras.” – Attributed to Dr. Theodore Woodward A doctor gave this bit of homespun advice to a a group of medical students as a way of telling them to focus on the most obvious causes for an illness when a patient came in search of help, rather…