Church
What comes after clergy self-care?
I didn’t need more candles or journaling. I needed solidarity with others.
Ministry and other difficult jobs
Pastors face intense challenges—though not necessarily unique ones.
Why I came back to the lectionary
My job as a preacher isn’t to change the game. It’s to run the plays well.
Bearing the scars
Years ago, at a barbecue in Argentina, I realized I was the only person present who wasn’t a survivor of torture.
In praise of church musicians
Great leaders of congregational song attend to the new community formed every time a church gathers.
Can inclusive churches grow and thrive?
When my spouse’s church became more affirming, the major givers left.
William Guthrie’s weird Christianity
The rector of St. Mark’s in-the-Bowery brought the church into relationship with the Greenwich Village avant-garde of the 1920s.
Showing up for church when I don’t want to
When I show up, God shows up—although not always in the sermon.
Pentecostals laboring in the field
Lloyd Barba shows how Mexican farmworkers established a viable life in the face of California’s industrial agriculture machine.
Social gospel heroes?
Janine Drake identifies ulterior motives in the church’s collaboration with labor in the early 20th century.
Spending Lent with people in recovery
In the company of church members in recovery from addiction, I’m feeling more open to the doctrine of original sin.
Repairing the redlined body of Christ
My church wanted to participate in our city’s reparations efforts. We began in our archives.
The theologically trained organizer
The most exciting horizons in theological education lie at its intersection with community organizing.
Teaching ministry students to ask beautiful questions
Narrative practice offers an excellent resource for the work of pastoral care.
A landscape of lost denominations
In the US, church foundation stones tell a mostly forgotten story of religious and ethnic history.
Sharing the burden of language disorientation
At my church, some of us are learning Spanish. Others are learning English.
Facing theological ed’s existential crisis
Four schools and the creative paths they’re charting
The glory of Epiphany
“It is arguably the least understood and least appreciated church season,” says Fleming Rutledge.
