Opinion
Why Some Use Coronavirus to Stoke Fear, Prejudice in Public
When tragedy strikes, people start to look for someone to blame for their woes. Even today, leaders are willing to use pandemics like COVID-19 to incite fear and prejudice in order to enact political and economic goals.
Reflecting on the Long and Winding Path of Today’s Theology
Theology is not a kind of esoteric knowledge possessed by a few superior intellectuals. Whenever and wherever anyone possesses faith – and seeks to understand its basis and structure – they are doing theology.
Your Church Doors May be Closed; You Can Still Open Your Hearts
As the COVID-19 pandemic has required many churches to close their doors, church members can still open their hearts by reaching out to support their local school districts as they make sure hungry kids are fed.
Your Work Carries Dignity but You’re Not Enslaved to It
From the beginning of the story we tell about ourselves, we are concerned about work. Aside from the respite that a weekly sabbatical brings, it says something about work. Our work carries dignity, but we are not enslaved to it.
Guest blog: Where is God in the COVID-19 pandemic?
Editor’s note: This Good Friday guest blog is by my friend Benny McCracken, pastor of First Baptist Church of West Yellowstone, Montana. Where is God in the COVID-19 pandemic? By Benny McCracken To hearken back to my conservative roots: "God is on his throne...
Rediscovering Life
Our churches may be empty on Easter morning, but rediscovering life in a global pandemic might mean rediscovering the church’s mission. What if the church rediscovered the Jesus-model of working and relating within the world?
After Pandemic Passes, Some Things Must Not Go Back to Normal
Some things can’t return to normal at the end of the coronavirus pandemic. For starters, people need a living wage when they put their health at risk for us. And access to health care shouldn’t depend on whether you have a job.
This Lent Has Destroyed Your Illusion of Self-Sufficiency – Part 2
The pandemic has attacked the very illusions we live by. In short, we need one another. Not simply when we are faced with viral contagion. We are created for one another, to flourish together or not at all.
Pandemic Grief | Being the Church When the World is Crumbling
Being the church when the world is crumbling requires naming grief. Making space for, and doing the work of, naming grief is a necessary predecessor to almost everything else that a church can do.
Lenten Lectionary | Easter 2020: Can Fear, Grief, Joy Coexist Together?
COVID-19 has taken a toll on us. How do we talk about resurrection and new life in a world where fear and grief seem to be the dominant emotional and mental states? Yet Easter reminds us fear and joy can coexist together.
Perform CPR on COVID-19 Patients? It’s Not an Easy Answer
Would you consider withholding a lifesaving procedure, like CPR, from a COVID-19 patient? Many of us would do whatever we could to save a human life, but the reality for healthcare workers is the answer is not always so clear-cut.
Loyalty over competence is bad management
By John D. Pierce Being surrounded by head-nodders who are afraid to offer constructive criticism, opposing viewpoints, and accountability may feel good. But it doesn’t make one a better person or leader. That approach, reflected so clearly in the current national...
This Lent Has Destroyed Your Illusion of Self-Sufficiency
Thanks to the coronavirus global pandemic, the most striking feature of this Lent is you have had to ‘give up’ something you never contemplated: Your entire view of who you are and what it means to be human.
Pascua de Resurrección del 2020: ¿Pueden Coexistir Juntos el Temor, el Duelo y el Gozo?
¿Cómo podemos hablar de resurrección y vida nueva en un mundo donde el temor y el duelo parecen ser los estados emocionales y mentales dominantes? ¿Cómo podemos hablar de resurrección en este tipo de mundo?
Read on!
By John D. Pierce Looking for something good to read? Perhaps something with intrigue, mystery and sex? Well, yes, the Bible fits the bill, but also check out Nurturing Faith Journal. The May/June issue is filled with fascinating, original content — including a visit...
A Different Kind of Holy Week, but Holy Nonetheless
Church facilities are closed, programs and services canceled or shifted to ‘virtual’ services. Things are not normal this year. Perhaps it’s an appropriate time to examine what ‘holy’ really means when we think about Holy Week.
When Your Life Loses Its Luster, Become a Child Again
Remember when the world was an exciting place. Remember being overcome with awe? That was before you grew up and lost sight of what was important. That was before you let the world take it away. Oh, to have the joy of a 2-year-old.
With COVID-19, Proactive Self-Care More Essential for Ministers
Clergy and other caring vocations are already more at risk for burnout and depression than other professions. With COVID-19 added to the mix, proactive self-care has become even more essential for ministers.
How Your Church Should Respond to Sexual Abuse Victims
How the church responds to victims of sexual abuse, especially in the initial days of disclosure, can determine the trajectory of their healing. These “best practices” will help you respond from a victim-centered approach.
What Can Your Church Do to Help Your Local Hospital?
As religious and civic leaders, we need to help our local hospitals and health care professionals care for the community during the COVID-19 pandemic. What you do may seem small to you, but it will be significant.
Why COVID-19 Isn’t the End of the World
Some may describe this moment of history in apocalyptic terms, but the apocalypse is not earth gone to hell in a handbasket by means of a bloody conflagration. It is the confidence in the promise of a new beginning.
A Eulogy of Sorts for the Mother I Knew Too Briefly
My mother died March 20. I loved her with wild abandon. After my dad molested my sisters, Mom took her first steps to the dark side, the last bit of hope rinsed from her heart. She became my father’s accomplice.
Building Trust and Teaching During a Global Pandemic
Teachers understand good teaching is about trust. You have to build relationships with students to engage the learning process. Building that trust becomes even more challenging when a global pandemic requires you to teach online.
TRUTH & HOPE
By John D. Pierce In his timely new book, Truth & Hope: Essays For A Perilous Age, Walter Brueggemann writes: “Truth-telling is grounded in the God who will not be mocked by our illusions. Hope is God-grounded in the conviction that even our wayward resistance...
A Holy Week Prelude: Searching for the Helpers
As we find ourselves in perilous times, we also find ourselves seeking hope. As Holy Week quickly approaches, good faith people can connect with the Jesus story more this year than any before. Look for the helpers – then and now.
Lenten Reflections: 5 Faithful Responses to COVID-19
Lent is a time of honest introspection. The COVID-19 pandemic offers us a fitting chance to reflect theologically on what is going on in this difficult time and how to respond to it in faith. Here are 5 faithful responses.
Does Coronavirus Give You Chance to Take the ‘Great Pause’?
With many of us enslaved to our economic and social situations, we rarely slow down and rest. Yet Sabbath was God’s way of telling his beloved children they were worthy of rest. Is COVID-19 a ‘great pause’ for us to consider?
Lenten Lectionary | Serving Jesus Amid Cutthroat Capitalism?
To celebrate Jesus as Lord – like the crowds did as he entered Jerusalem – means following his lead in giving his life for others. In a nation inundated with nationalism, cutthroat capitalism and individualism, is that possible?
How Unruffled Leadership Will Benefit Your Congregation
The job of effective church leaders is to help keep down the level of anxiety in the emotional system of the congregation. Effective leaders help people manage their level of anxiety so they can accomplish their goals.
A New Season
By: Ginger Hughes “There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot…a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance…a time to embrace and...