Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

Church Matters

  • Go read Rachel Held Evans’ Confessions of an accidental feminist. Very good stuff. I always laugh a little to myself when I receive a Google Alert informing me that someone on the internet has criticized me as a “bitter, angry woman” intent on destroying the Church with my “radical feminist agenda.” I laugh because if these…

  • Awhile back I wrote about how much I hate announcement time.  Go back and take a look at it, because I feel justified in saying that.  Announcement time, as I’ve experienced it in the several congregations I’ve served has, for the most part, been a horrible train wreck.  This is mostly the case because it is…

  • For several weeks I’ve been writing about engaging different groups in church.  Then I wrote about dealing with time constraints and what it means for planning.  Now, I am making a personal appeal for an entirely different approach: it is time to get rid of our programs. As Phyllis Tickle adeptly outlines in The Great…

  • Yesterday I wrote that when we claim we don’t have enough time for church, it is really code for “I don’t want to”. Today I’ll say that living in the U.S. right now is like living in a time-sucking vortex of anxiety and despair.  Or maybe that’s just what it feels like when I get 30 minutes…

  • In church, we make the excuse that we don’t have enough time, but what we really mean is, “I don’t want to.” I don’t want to volunteer or I don’t want to miss my son’s soccer game or I don’t want to put one more thing on my plate. I don’t want to contribute. I…

  • I’m launching a newsletter soon and am eager to get all of my friends involved.  If you would like to write, draw, paint, illustrate, cartoon about faith church practice the lectionary worship tricks and more then email me at [email protected].  More details will follow shortly.