Formation
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Just Cut the Church Programs
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5 min read
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…
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6 Keys to Engaging Seniors in Church
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5 min read
Growing up, my favorite people in church fell into the “senior” category. They were the most engaged in my life and were so happy to see me. I wasn’t a nuisance, even when I was incredibly embarrassing to my parents. I was so profoundly loved by the seniors at Trinity Episcopal in Alpena, Michigan. This category,…
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Bullying Isn’t Free Speech–Even in Michigan
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3 min read
Matt’s Safe School Law, otherwise known as Michigan’s “anti-anti-bullying law” is an embarrassment and juvenile. It is the pre-emptive self-defense of bigotry, and just like the nation’s first foray with the Bush Doctrine, this has a profound effect on people’s real lives. It hurts people. Real people. Not mythical, hypothetical, potential people. Real, living people…
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How about we occupy the church?
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3 min read
Of course the teens should occupy the church; but not just teens. Us! We should occupy the church! We should demand a better church! We should lay claim to our leadership of an institution that today only benefits some! Brian Kirk asks in a column for Patheos: “Should we help teens occupy the church?” which…
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5 Keys to Engaging Mid-Lifers in church
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6 min read
One of my good church friends is Jimmy*. Jimmy is a Baby Boomer, served in Vietnam, runs a small business he owns. He, like many of his generation, grew up going to church and spent the middle twenty or so years not. Jimmy and I would talk about what matters…
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Halloween, All Saints’, & too much candy
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4 min read
A web-friend was recently asked about Halloween and what he thinks about it as a Christian. His response, as expected, was thorough, honest, and appropriate. Mine, is well…perhaps a little less so. I don’t really dig on Halloween & Church. Not because I think it is demonic or sinful or whatever. And it is not…