local church
It’s time to rethink our assumptions about where theological education happens
Until 1565, the local church was also the seminary.
Pastors have the power to convene conversations
When it comes to addressing local problems, proclamation isn't enough.
What a congregation knows: The deep wisdom behind odd practices
Local ways are rarely senseless or stupid. It's just that a new pastor likely doesn't yet understand them as the locals do.
Where issues have faces
The mainline has long congratulated itself for being prophetic because it's good at voting for progressive agendas. But change happens at the local level.
The poured-out church: Leaving church on a regular basis
There is nothing like writing a book called Leaving Church for discovering how many things people can make of a title like that. The church of the title is Grace-Calvary Church in Clarkesville, Georgia. Leaving is what I did in 1997 when I resigned from parish ministry. In the year since the book came out, I have received thousands of letters, most so poignant that I have to hold my heart while I read them.What I read above all is a rich mix of love and grief: love for the mainline churches that have formed the faithful, and grief that so many of those churches have run out of holy steam. The love part makes the grief part hard to articulate.