  The following welcome is printed each week in the bulletin of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Community in Daytona Beach, Florida.  It reflects the kind of welcoming community every congregation should be.  It does not say that all the choices reflected in the welcome are good choices, and it says nothing about what is […]
3363) All Are Welcome Read More »
   I was cleaning out an old storeroom in one of the churches I served many years ago. Under a pile of junk, covered with dust, I found a big book of old sermons. The sermons had been discovered and published in the 1950’s by the descendant of a pastor who served that congregation
3357) Give Your Preacher a Break Read More »
   What do Louie Armstrong, Elvis Presley, and Martin Luther have in common?  They all initiated a revolution in the music of their time and culture.  Louie Armstrong introduced New Orleans jazz to the nation and then to the world.  Elvis Presley introduced rock and roll to the nation and then to the world.
3334) Louie, Elvis, and Martin Read More »
   In one of my seminary classes on preaching in the late 1970’s, the professor said we should start a little file of things we hear or read that might be useful in a sermon sometime: stories, quotes, illustrations, memories, prayers, poems, song lyrics, and jokes. He also had some suggestions on how we
3326) A Few Good Songs Read More »
For most of my ministry, I led Sunday morning worship out of the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978, Augsburg Publishing House). The order of service was the traditional Lutheran liturgy. Near the end of the service each week was the “The Prayer of the Church,” with a recommended format (along with other options). In the
3317) The Prayer of the Church Read More »
   Since I have retired, I have visited many churches. Some of them have been huge, seating many hundreds, even thousands, of worshipers. After worship, people may exit out of any one of many doors.    Most of the churches I served were small, seating at the most 200, crowded in for big
3298) “Good Sermon, Pastor!” Read More »
By Tom Bodett, Small Comforts, 1987, pages 156-159.    Among the thousand and one truisms that were hurled at us as expectant parents was one I especially wanted to believe:  “You are going to learn the most important things from your children.”  It sounded so promising, and when accompanied by a smug veteran-parent grin, it
   Three weeks ago, I told you about actor Max McLean, and provided a link to a video of his off-Broadway performance of The Gospel of Mark. The production is ninety minutes of McLean doing a dramatic reading of the entire Gospel of Mark, word for word, as it appears in the New International
3264) Hear the Word of the Lord Read More »
   It is a delight for my wife and I to watch the hummingbirds gathering nectar from the flowers in our backyard garden. They are so small, so fragile, so fast, and so beautiful. In the below video, you will see that they are even more magnificent than you could have ever imagined. A
3248) Dancing Rainbows Read More »
 A Methodist minister tells this story…    A family of inactive members in his parish lived right next door to the church. The yard was a disgrace. Wrecked cars and discarded appliances littered the place. The grass was seldom mowed. The husband was a disgrace. He drank too much and rumors were that he
3247) Not All Churches are the Same Read More »
