How can we deal with our fears?
The first church I served as a pastor provided a house for the pastor’s family. It came with a full basement in which a nest of field mice had settled. When I started getting rid of the mice, my children objected. They knew only the cute mice of television and movies. I knew how often mice […]
Beyond the Crises
As I sighed at yet another example of fear mongering in political campaigns, I realized that churches are as guilty of it as political parties. We can go from crisis to crisis as a management style, using doom and gloom to motivate. Crises create anxieties. Anxieties look for crises as justifications for their existence. It becomes a cannibalistic […]
Do You See Your Neighbor?
Last month the Northern California Nevada Conference Annual Meeting passed resolutions concerning welcoming immigrants and limiting gun violence. Both topics are very important. Both topics are related to something larger, which was the theme of the whole weekend: “Have You Seen Your Neighbor?” There are many who are promoting the paranoia that the government wants […]