The middle-aged man stood before our group of mostly thirty-something congregational lay leaders and announced with the kind of certainty that comes from being a paid, invited consultant, “80% of most congregations are comprised of people with the spiritual gift of helps.” Our pastoral team had invited him to come to our church in the early 1980′s to…

I wish I could say we are following cloud by day, fire by night like our forebears in the Sinai did. My husband and I are seeking God, but our journey lacks a clear destination at this point. All I know is that we are facing another move in the next few weeks. When we received…

Remember when we were gonna not only change the world, but completely rearrange it? The Jesus Movement was seeded by the Spirit in the soil of the massive social unrest of the 1960′s. Many Boomers who came of age during this era learned that the military-industrial cabal responsible for U.S. involvement in Viet Nam, the Cold War, Agent…

In a world where many large Protestant churches livestream their services online, where both Catholic and Evangelicals/Charismatics have their own basic cable networks, why show up in person at a local church when you can watch a much slicker version of church on your computer or TV? Why show up at a local church when…

The church we currently attend* offers communion once-a-month-ish during its worship services. If a special event or speaker is slated, communion isn’t offered that month. Though I’ve spent four decades worshipping in mostly Evangelical churches, I’ve never bought in to the idea is a communion once-a-month post-script to the “real” worship service (sung worship, announcements,…

If you’re a Jesus Person of a certain age and had a subversive streak, you probably remember the old Wittenburg Door magazine.* If you don’t, here’s a link to a 1986 Sun-Sentinel article about the Door that snapshots its role and voice, back in the day. The magazine simultaneously skewered the worst of Christian subculture,…