Alycia Ashburn How do we sustain our climate activism? It can't be about fear. IN ORDER TO imagine the s ...

Life is difficult. It can knock you down. Sometimes, an entire nation gets knocked down. Life is difficult. It can knock you down. Sometimes, an entire nation gets knocked down. ...

Martin L. Smith Reflections on the Revised Common Lectionary, Cycle C "EVEN IF I OWNED Picasso's &# ...

Anyone who has been paying attention has noticed that, of those left within the walls of most churches, the majority still hanging in there are women. I’ll preface this piece my ...

I empathize with people fleeing the local church. Churches can be battlefields instead of harbors, pits of condemnation or politics rather than wells of living water. But the endless search for something “new” ...

It's been a very musical weekend. Pictured at left is a Foster 7-string guitar. It's just like a traditional 6-string acoustic, but with the added rumble of a low-b string. It's an interesting ...

A growing majority of people outside the church doors don’t really care about the denominational logo over the entryway, the name inscribed on the stone sign by the street or the long, rich history of all the ...

A University of Washington study posits that worship services at megachurches can trigger feelings of transcendence and changes in brain chemistry – a spiritual “high” that keeps congregants coming back for mo ...

Joshua Witchger Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices, by The Welcome Wagon. Asthmatic Kitty Records. ...

The second Wild Goose Festival has just ended. I left a piece of my heart in the hills of North Carolina. Ahead is the third WG fest at the end of August in Portland OR. And then there will be next year and th ...

There’s the trend of “third space” ministry, getting out of the four walls of the church building and meeting people in different, typically “secular” contexts. Author and theolog ...

Palm Sunday/Passion Sunday and the week that follows — Holy Week — are times for Christians to remember and share the biblical stories of Jesus’ teachings and actions for peace. These stories encourage us to pray and work for peace, especially in light ...

On November 6, I will join Jim Wallis, staff members from Sojourners, and 15,000 others in Washington, D.C.'s Lafayette Park to tell President Obama to stop the Keystone XL pipeline project. ...

THE NATION: Where Are The Women At Occupy Wall Street? Everywhere-And They're Not Going Away THE NATION : Where Are The Women At Occupy Wall Street? Everywhere-And They& ...

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the fifth and final installment in a week-long series of reports from the Global Christian Forum in Manado, Indonesia filed by Wes Granberg-Michaelson, the former General Sec ...

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the second in a week-long series of reports from the Global Christian Forum in Manado, Indonesia filed by Wes Granberg-Michaelson, the former General Secretary of the Reform ...

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the first in a week-long series of reports from the Global Christian Forum in Manado, Indonesia filed by Wes Granberg-Michaelson, the former General Secretary of the Reforme ...

This weekend and on St. Francis Day (Oct. 4) some churches are having services for the blessing of animals. This weekend and on St. Francis Day (Oct. 4) some churches are ...

When our ideas about nature come primarily from Sierra Club calendars or selected snippets from Thoreau, an east coast earthquake and monster hurricane (in the same week) are powerful wake-up calls. ...

[Editors' note: Below is a hymn written by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette to inspire churches to further support and pray for famine relief in Somalia and the Horn of Africa.] O God, You Love the Needy ...

Earlier this summer I attended a church service where the pastor, a man struggling with what appears to be his final bout with cancer, preached about the hope that Jesus promises to those who trust ...

The Lord called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, 'Here I am, for you called me.' Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. ...

Socrates famously said that the unexamined life is not worth living. Socrates famously said that the unexamined life is not worth living. Sometimes I wonder if the church that f ...

In recent days I've been thinking through with a friend one of the enduring challenges of pastoral and catechetical ministry: how to dispel the notion that worship should be entertaining. ...

Many people remember "O God, Our Words Cannot Express," a hymn written on the afternoon of September 11, 2001. Many people remember " O God, Our Words Cannot Expr ...

Lean and lanky, the 30-something teacher probed the congregation with a practiced eye as he wound down his presentation. Lean and lanky, the 30-something teacher probed the congre ...

When the Alabama legislature passed their infamous, anti-immigrant law (HB 56), the religious community in the state immediately cried foul. When the Alabama legislature passed th ...

President Barack Obama will decide as early as September whether to light a fuse to the largest carbon bomb in North America. That bomb is the massive tar sands field in Canada's Alberta province. ...

I'm getting arrested on Aug. 29 at the White House. It's time to put my body where my soul is -- defending God's creation. I'm getting arrested on Aug. 29 at t ...

The other day I read some interesting statistics about how social media is shaping our lives . The other day I read some interesting statistics about how social media is shaping ...

You don't need a ton of proof to know that more and more churches are struggling to survive. It seems churches that are in this predicament have one of two options: revive or die ...

I was not one of the 1,500 who attended the inaugural Wild Goose Festival in Shakori Hills, North Carolina last month, but I did grow up going to Christian summer camp. I was not ...

<p>Puppies. Sudan. Atlantis. Here's a little round up of links from around the Web you may have missed this week:</p> Puppies. Sudan. Atlantis. Here's a litt ...

Ten days after 9/11, Rais Bhuiyan, an immigrant from Bangladesh, was working at a gas station in Dallas, Texas when a man walked in with a gun. Thinking the store was being robbed, Bhuiyan opened the cash regi ...

Sitting in church the other night, I thought about Jackson Helms.</p> Sitting in church the other night, I thought about Jackson Helms. Helms, a 12-year-old who suffers ...

After posting a blog about my <a href="http://blog.sojo.net/2011/06/13/10-problems-of-a-dying-church-and-how-to-fix-them/" target="_blank">observations of a dying church</a>, th ...

When trying to make sense of the changes that new media have brought to us, we can use either supplementary or substitutionary logic. When trying to make sense of the changes that ...

This hymn was originally used for the dedication of the 180 solar panels on the sanctuary of Limestone Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, Delaware where I am the co-pastor. This h ...

I recently wrote a blog about how to kill a dying church, asking questions about what to do with so many churches dying. I recently wrote a blog about how to kill a dying church ...

<p><a href="http://blog.sojo.net/2011/06/09/pentecost-the-coming-of-the-wild-goose" target="_self"></a>This Sunday is Pentecost. For 50 days, a group of 120 followers of J ...

Have you seen the Dos Equis commercials starring actor Jonathan Goldsmith as "the most interesting man in the world"? Have you seen the Dos Equis commercials starring ac ...

North Carolina, host state for the inaugural <a href="http://wildgoosefestival.org/" target="_blank">Wild Goose Festival</a>, has many things going for it. ...

I was raised in a charismatic megachurch that prided itself in being "non-religious." Our pastor thought of himself as a grace preacher, and in many ways he was. I was r ...

<p><a href="http://blog.sojo.net/2011/05/17/worship-songs-for-a-new-generation-hold-on-to-love/" target="_self"></a>Much ink has been spilled about the so-called "lov ...

Like all of you, I was stunned some days ago as I started soaking in the breaking news of Osama bin Laden's capture and death via U.S. military operations.</p> Like all ...

I just watched a 60 Minutes expose on Greg Mortenson, co-author of Three Cups of Tea and co-founder of the nonprofit the Central Asia Institute. Watching I just watched a 60 M ...

Here are 10 ways to make Earth Day a church day for your congregation, small group, or family.<em></em></p> Here are 10 ways to make Earth Day a church day for y ...

Almost three weeks ago I stopped eating and started fasting, calling people of faith and conscience to do the same.</p> Almost three weeks ago I stopped eating and started f ...

<em>[<strong>Editors' note: </strong>Below is a hymn written by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette to celebrate <a href="http://blog.sojo.net/tag/palm-sunday/" target="_blank&quo ...

I'm a Midwestern girl coming out of her winter shell this month. Flip flops are lost companions just now crawling out from under beds and hidden closet shelves. I'm a Mi ...