Author: Michelle Van Loon
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Of Bulletin Boards And Plaster Pillars
It was the Battle of the Bulletin Boards (BBB). Specifically, where said bulletin boards would be hung: front and center in the church lobby or tucked along a far wall, toward the back of the building. Oh yes. the BBB was an epic fight, right up there with battles waged in other congregations over the…
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My Favorite Things, 2012 version
For some reason, my annual “Favorite Things” lists (2010 and 2011) get far less press than those of a certain former daytime talk show personality whose first name rhymes with Bophrah. I don’t understand it. And though, as Art Buchwald (whose first name rhymes with both tart and fart) once noted, the best things in…
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The sound of red in your head
When you read those red letter words in your Bible, the ones Jesus spoke, what sort of inflection and emotion do you hear speaking those words to you as you “listen” to the red in your head? In your soul? What tone of voice do you imagine Jesus is using in any given situation? I…
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I was wrong about you, Beth Moore
Beth Moore, you surprised me. When I worked at a seminary bookstore, various women’s ministry leaders from the local church community would call or come in to order curriculum for their study groups. It seemed as though about 90% of them ordered Beth Moore’s materials. The Moore-orderers tended to be older, conservative women from churches that sponsored…
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Buh-buy, Siloed Spirituality
Though the suburban Chicago landscape is cluttered with far more strip malls than silos, it was the image of those tall, self-contained round storage units that seemed the best image to describe the problem. Get out of the city, drive through this region’s farmland, and you’ll see one or two silos marking most every agricultural…
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Praying for our friends
Bill and I were supposed to be in Jerusalem this week for a Caspari board meeting, but finances kept us here in the U.S. (He Skyped in to the meeting instead.) The headlines coming out of that region are stunning and sobering. The opining unending. The only thing I can do is pray. The words…