I am always carrying way too much stuff around. I live only four blocks from the church where I am a pastor, but I am embarrassed at how often I drive there. I drive because of all the stuff I haul from one place to another. It is common for...

An Important Message from Church Headquarters: Treasuring the freedom that allows us to honor our unique ancient traditions while keeping up with the times, we propose adjusting these special Sundays in the church year.

Where I'm At Sunday, May 8 (formerly Confirmation Sunday): The youth of the church will...

When you want your 19-year-old son to take a trip with you, you have to be willing to think like a 19-year-old when it comes to travel plans. That's how I ended up spending a week with him in a remote tree house in Nicaragua. In order to get from...

Torn: Rescuing the Gospel from the Gays-vs.-Christian Debate by Justin Lee
Reviewed by Lillian Daniel

Raised a Southern Baptist, with two loving parents, Justin Lee didn't want to be gay. But when he revealed that he was only attracted to his own gender, the church he loved...

A health club proudly displays its motto: "Making Health the Center of Your Life."

At first glance, it's a logical claim. After all, they are in the business of keeping people fit and healthy. If you put health at the center of your life, you may put the health...

An ethicist, a Bible scholar, a theologian and a preacher walk into a hotel that is being boycotted at the request of its own workers. It's like the punch line of a bad joke. But it's not a joke, it could happen. And it's not funny, but serious.

It is...

10 Good Reasons to Get Married in a Church

1. I want God to be at the center of this momentous event.
2. I desire God's guidance in my married life.
3. I love this church and I am an active participant in it.
4. I was once an active participant in this...

10 Signs You Should Not be Getting Married in a Church

1. You find yourself asking the clergy to take all the references to Jesus out of the service.
2. You find yourself dreading your next meeting with the minister.
3. You find yourself dreading the service, worried that the minister...

When death hits us, we are never prepared. Even when we know the end is near, when we can see the storm on the horizon, when it hits, it still feels like a tsunami. For one thing, most of us don't have a lot of experience losing a deeply beloved...

Memorial Day began in this country after the Civil War as an effort toward reconciliation between the families of veterans in the North and the South. After the war, there was already a tradition in the North of decorating soldiers' graves, called "Decoration Day." But in 1868 an organization of...

Someone in the online dating world received this note from a potential suitor:

"You should be an outdoors and nature lover ... did I mention you must like cats?

When I was a kid, my mother planned a big garden party, where her yard would be filled with blooming daffodils that she had planted in anticipation. But as the party date approached, the weather stayed cold and no daffodils were even close to blooming.

Yet on the day of...

The Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto bills itself as being "for the curious," and I certainly was. There you can see Shaquille O'Neal's size 20 triple E basketball shoes, and Elton John's platforms as well as Madonna's. (Elton John's had higher heels, but then again, he did less...

A few weeks ago, a pastor was reported as saying he knew why the Denver Broncos were 7-1 since installing Tebow as quarterback. "It's not luck," the pastor said. "Luck isn't winning six games in a row. It's favor. God's favor." The pastor seems to have skipped a...

Even before the flight took off, we knew who would be offering our in-flight entertainment. The man in the seat in front of me began by taking out a ballpoint pen, putting it into his mouth and then taking a dramatic inhale. "You probably all think that I am smoking,"...

On airplanes, I dread the conversation with the person who finds out I am a minister and wants to use the flight time to explain to me that he is "spiritual but not religious." Such a person will always share this as if it is some kind of daring insight,...

Most grandmothers teach their grandchildren how to make cookies. My grandmother taught me how to make a gin and tonic. That was the easy part. What was hard was getting the gin bottle out from inside the raw chicken, where it was hidden in the fridge. A card carrying eccentric...

If all you did was watch the news in these weeks leading up to Father's Day, you'd think that when men hit middle age, they suddenly become twittering twits with the self restraint and judgment of a starving cobra at a rat convention. Lately in the news, we've seen tale...

This is the time of year when school is wrapping up, and some people are even preparing to graduate from one life stage to another. But first, they have to get all that work done and completed. Will it actually get done? The pressure is on.

Little children in...

"We Thank Our Employees For Being Recognized as One of Chicago's Top 10 Workplaces!" read the sign in front of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Chicago last Saturday. But while the Hyatt was thanking the employees for the award, the small print at the bottom of the sign revealed it...