Nov. '92 - We're connected

Who I am and why I am writing Connections

Dec. '92 - If I were a Bishop 

What I'd do that I don't see bishops doing; what I'd avoid that I often see them doing.

Jan. '93 - Power in the church

We often think of power as bad, but God evidently wants us to have the power we need for doing what God calls us to do. But this "power to" is different from exerting power over other people. Power in organizations has several forms, each of which can be used for good or harm, as "power over" or "power to." In Power Analysis of a Congregation, Roy Oswald helps us see where power is and how it works, in the church and other organizations.

Feb. '93 - Kindred spirits

God often communicates with us and ministers to our needs through other people, especially the kindred spirits who share our main concerns and communicate in ways we understand most clearly. But to find and be found by kindred spirits, we have to be honest and open in revealing our real beliefs and feelings. We also have to be careful and kind in handling what other people reveal to us. Marilyn Ferguson calls kindred spirits "conspirators"—" those who breathe together." Others call them "resonators." In A Testament of Freedom, Thomas Kelly calls them people whom we know to the depths, from within. Churches need to be places where we can find and connect with them. 

Mar. '93 - Tradition—it can lead us to God or away from God

Church traditions are like the gift wraps I enjoy constructing and saving. They can be beautiful, and they bring back fond memories, but they don't stay usable forever. Traditions are like parents, too—sometimes valuable guides but sometimes obstacles to making changes we need to make. Tradition-breakers—Jesus, Luther, Wesley—started our church traditions, yet we often want to cling to their ways instead of being equally innovative in finding today's ways to reach the sacred.

Apr. '93 - Step into new life 

God continually leads us to new steps we need to take. Unfortunately, friends and family don't always help us take the needed steps, because if we change, it changes the setting in which our friends and family live, and they may not find the new setting as comfortable as their present setting. Steps that seem tiny to others sometimes seem huge and are crucial for the person who needs to change. 

May '93 - Insiders and outsiders in the church

A church building and program that seem comfortable and welcoming to insiders can seem forbidding to outsiders, so it's important for insiders to try to look with outsiders' eyes. A church staff or committee can overlook needed information and ideas if all its members think alike and socialize together. A Sunday School class can turn off potential new members if its members are so comfortable conversing with each other that they ignore visitors. Laity feel like outsiders when clergy talk only among themselves or manipulate the system in ways that only they know. 

June '93 - God creates us with differences

In the church it's essential to recognize that people have different God-given abilities, interests, and personalities, and to welcome all of them actively. Discovering the Myers-Briggs system of classifying personality types was a life-saver for me, because my way of approaching life is shared only by a tiny minority of the U.S. population. This Connections describes this system of describing personality types and suggests books for learning more about it.

July '93 - A pebble can be powerful when used for God

God can make our tiniest abilities and seemingly feeblest tools powerful when we make them available for God's use. In the Bible, the story of David and Goliath and the story of Esther, among others, show this happening. These stories give us valuable clues for discovering our own assets and making them effective for God's purposes. In Turning Points, Max Christensen tells about people responding to "divine taps on the shoulder" in today's world.

Aug. '93 - Lay Christians at work

God calls each of us to ministry. It's not just the responsibility of clergy. And ministry isn't done only through the institutional church. The places where people live, work, and go for social and leisure activities are the places where people are most likely to be reached with the gospel, and lay people, not clergy, have constant access to these places. In The Divine Milieu, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin assures us that being Christian does not add a burden of observances and obligations to our lives but rather gives meaning, beauty, and a new lightness to what we are already doing. In The Monday Connection, William Diehl laments that few churchgoers find spirituality in daily life and most churches do little to help them find it. He found that small support groups sharing the concerns of daily life could help. In How Can I Be Over the Hill When I Haven't Seen the Top Yet? Patricia Wilson reminds us that being the church doesn't just happen once a week in the church sanctuary, yet meeting and sharing with fellow Christians is essential.

Sept. '93 - Prayer in a busy world

In the church we too often give the false impression that being a good Christian is possible only for people who aren't very involved in the real world. We portray silence, solitude, and plenty of time as essential for prayer. But as a Sunday School teacher of mine used to assure his students, praying on the run may be more important. In The Way of the Heart, Henri Nouwen reminds us that we don't have to be like the monks who retreated to cells in the desert to pray. Rather, silence is a quality of the heart, a portable cell that we can carry with us wherever we go. This Connections also includes suggestions from authors Ron DelBene, Parker Palmer, and Chester Michael and Marie Norissey, who describe prayer methods that fit different personalities and settings.

Oct. '93 - What century is this? Christians don't seem to know

We use computers, not abacuses or scrolls. We don't communicate with smoke signals. But we still quote scripture and express our beliefs in words that are relics from the past. In worship services we pray "Our Father who art in heaven," and we say "sitteth at the right hand of God." This must make outsiders wonder "What century do these people think they're in?" Our use of outdated words in church gives messages about God and human beings that deny what we otherwise claim to believe. Also, we still use some organizational methods that were designed for 18th-century rural America.  Through these practices, we're giving the wrong messages to today's people. 

Nov. '93 - Our stories connect us, but telling them is scary

Sharing our personal faith stories with each other can be scary at first, but it helps us connect with other people and with God. I'm sharing some of my story here. In Why Am I Afraid to Tell You Who I am, John Powell reminds us that unless our minds and hearts are hopelessly barricaded, we're different people today from those we were yesterday, so in order to know each other, we need to keep sharing our stories. In Telling Secrets, Frederick Buechner points out that hearing others' stories helps us recognize important features of our own. And Joanna Field, in A Life of One's Own, observes that if we can't bear to let others know our stories, we probably can't bear to look at them ourselves in the ways we need to look.

Dec. '93 - The church and the world

Christmas is an especially hard time to say no to customs we need to say no to, like excessive spending and excessive eating. In The Once and Future Church, Loren Mead discusses how the world's attitude toward the church has changed over the centuries, and what this change means for the church. In Freeing the Faith, Hugh Dawes challenges us to see the world as Jesus apparently did.

Jan. '94 - When Christians disagree

Christians often are among both the supporters and the opponents of an issue, because the Bible doesn't give all-purpose rules and doesn't specifically address all the situations we encounter in today's world. In The Myth of Certainty, Daniel Taylor explains that Christians who disagree with us often seem like a threat to our assumptions about reality and truth, so they frighten us. In defense, people often use rigidity and even violence. Taylor finds that we're confusing unity with uniformity when we insist that all Christians must come to God in the same way and use the same words for describing their experiences and beliefs. Hearing a variety of views and beliefs is valuable.

Feb. '94 - "Do this in remembrance of me"

Christians have different understandings, along with different names, for Communion, the Eucharist, the Lord's Supper. Many disagreements about the observance of this rite focus on superficial aspects of it that keep us from seeing God in it. To me, its symbolism, which has appeared in many ways throughout history, not just in Christianity, asks us to give our lives and our selves, as Jesus gave his.

Mar. '94 - Many ways to worship

To reach younger people, many new fast-growing congregations are using worship styles very different from the styles older, long-time churchgoers are used to. But instead of complaining about new styles, we need to ask ourselves what's really essential for worship. In Trouble at the Table, Carol Doran and Thomas Troeger affirm that most of us are most comfortable in worship whose practices are what we're used to. But drawing on the best that each segment of our membership and the population has to offer can be important for carrying out our real purpose.

Apr. '94 - Sunday School

Many Sunday School classes use the same kind of lesson material and hear the same teacher for years, never exposing members to new viewpoints or new information. This kind of class can keep members from noticing when God is offering them new insight and nudging them to take new steps in their spiritual journeys. This Connections suggests ways to make classes more interesting and more conducive to spiritual growth.

May '94 - Christians aren't God's police force

The gospels show Jesus directing his strongest criticism toward the religious people who had appointed themselves God's thought police. He told his followers not to try to weed out the people who disagreed with them but to practice love instead. When I hear Christians railing against people they think are breaking God-given rules, I feel like I'm back in the halls of my elementary school, hearing the principal roar at violators of trivial school rules.

June '94 - God's priorities and ours

Jesus's number-one priority seems to have been demonstrating love in action, but our churches' top priority often seems to be members' comfort instead.  Faithfulness requires constant attention to what Jesus's priorities were.

July '94 - We can't stop with what we learned in kindergarten

For coping with adult life and doing what God calls us to do, limiting ourselves to what we learned in kindergarten or even in our earlier adult life isn't enough. In The Paralysis of Mainstream Protestant Leadership, Edward Carothers calls this limited approach to faith starvation. For growing as Christians, continually being fed with new information is essential, as is continually reevaluating and occasionally revising our present beliefs. 

Aug. '94 - Lay voices in the church

Many lay Christians feel their voices aren't heard in the church. None of us as individuals can expect to call the shots in it, but if we've informed ourselves and thought about our beliefs, then expressing our views and concerns is important. This Connections suggests ways in which we can have a voice and be heard.

Sept. '94 - God speaks through our dreams

For many years I was baffled by scriptures that described God speaking through dreams. Then I discovered how to see meaning not only in dreams but also in other places where symbolic language appears, including visual art, literature, the Bible and other religious writings, and religious rituals. This discovery especially helped me understand a life-changing dream that came at midlife. This Connections gives pointers for remembering and understanding dreams, and suggests books that may help. 

Oct. '94 - Who's feeding today's sheep? 

Jesus says "feed my sheep," but we often offer things the sheep can't recognize as food. Older members often don't see any  need for the variety that younger people consider essential, but we need to pay attention to what food will attract today's sheep, even if it's food that we don't find tasty. In Dancing with Dinosaurs, Bill Easum reminds us to design our worship for today's people, not just for yesterday's. In Looking in the Mirror, Lyle Schaller reminds us to ask first what we're trying to to, and then whether we're spending our resources trying to keep yesterday alive.

Nov. '94 - Broadcasting and narrowcasting

Many of the methods our churches use for communicating are guaranteed to reach only a few people. In Ministry in an Oral Culture, Tex Sample points out that half of the people in the U.S. live in an oral culture, but our churches are offering a lot that these people find meaningless and boring. He suggests how the church can reach them.

Dec. '94 - Here comes Jesus!

A friend who was drafted to play the role of Jesus in a Vacation Bible School activity was startled when the children shouted "Here comes Jesus!" as he entered the room. The experience made him reevaluate himself and his way of living. Isn't "Here comes Jesus!"  the reaction we all need to evoke in the people who encounter us in our daily life?

Jan. '95 - God calls us into community

God calls the church to be a community—a group whose members know and care about each other. That means showing each other our real selves, not false fronts. It requires acknowledging our differences and addressing conflict openly, not acting as if it doesn't exist or ousting people who disagree with the majority. In The Incendiary Fellowship, Elton Trueblood says that what often passes for Christianity today is not burning conviction but a damp wick. He doesn't think the church can be brought back to life by merely rearranging the lives of uncommitted people. In A World Waiting to Be Born, Scott Peck says churches are now the hardest groups in which to build community, and in The American Religion, Harold Bloom says urging the need for community upon American religionists is a vain enterprise. Years ago, in The Emerging Church,  Bruce Larson and Ralph Osborne observed that congregations were emphasizing minor aspects of the church and ignoring essential ones. That still seems to be mostly true.

Feb. '95 - Seminaries—the church's seed beds

A survey about seminary education showed that lay churchgoers, pastors, and seminary professors had very different opinions about what should get top priority in preparing pastors. Some gave top priority to indoctrination, some to exposure to a wide range of thought, some to practical training, and some to being prophetic as the church's cutting edge, This difference shows the need for change, both at the grass roots and in the ivory towers, or at least for more information and better understanding. I found attending seminary exhilarating, despite having heard mostly negative views of seminaries earlier in my life.

Mar. '95 - The church can learn from business

God speaks through lay people and the world of work, not just through clergy and religious activities, so findings from the business world are sometimes helpful for the church. In The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge gives useful pointers about how to be a learning organization—one which keeps increasing its ability to get the results it wants. Ezra Earl Jones also gives helpful advice in Quest for Quality. In an Atlantic Monthly article, Peter Drucker writes about the embarrassing non-results that many organizations get, and about how setting benchmarks and providing incentives to employees can help to produce better results.

Apr. '95 - A letter to a beginning pastor

Giving top priority to Sunday worship services, speaking lay language, composing sermons carefully, and taking laity seriously without letting congregation members set the church's whole agenda are among the practices I wish beginning (and experienced!) pastors would follow. 

May '95 - Who will speak for the church?

This time when delegates to the quadrennial UMC General Conference are elected is crucial for the UMC's future. Understanding the process, getting pertinent facts, using effective tactics for voting, and looking carefully at potential delegates' qualifications are vitally important.

June '95 - Rocking the church boat

Rocking the boat in the church can be harmful but is often helpful and badly needed. In Antagonists in the Church, Kenneth Haugk helps readers see how to distinguish between harmful and helpful boat-rocking. In an issue of The Parish Paper, Lyle Schaller reminds us that perpetuating the status quo is not the road to a transformed life.

July '95 - What do these stones mean?

For us, the church is like the mound of stones we read about God telling Joshua to set up as a reminder of God's action. In order for such stones to serve their intended purpose, we have to keep asking what they mean and whether we need to continue doing all the things that different ones of our stones commemorate. 

Aug. '95 - Finding the real Jesus

Because I see Jesus portrayed in such a wide variety of ways, I try to stay on the lookout for more information about what he was really like. That effort has led me to some writings of the Jesus Seminar. Although there's disagreement about all such writings, I'm dismayed by the many Christians who refuse to even consider the findings and speculations of scholars who try to learn about the life of Jesus and other aspects of early Christian history. In Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time, and in Jesus, A New Vision, Marcus Borg writes about the pre-Easter Jesus and the post-Easter Jesus, a distinction that may help Christians get a better understanding of what they read in the Bible and hear at church. In Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, John Dominic Crossan gives helpful information and advice.

Sept. '95 - Reading under the eye of God 

"We read under the eye of God," said a monk many centuries ago, "until the heart is touched and leaps to flame." Reading has been an important route to God for me. Here I list many of my all-time-favorite books.

Oct. '95 - Heresy

Some of today's Christians are displaying arrogance and meanness that don't seem to be Christian. Many Christians think of heresy as a thing of the past, when people were burned at the stake for expressing unacceptable beliefs, but concern about exposing and rooting out heresy is making a comeback. Jesus apparently didn't demand uniformity of belief, so why should his followers? In a Christian Century article, Thomas Oden advocates preserving ancient rules and boundaries, while  Lewis Mudge emphasizes the need to recognize our faith's current best moral insight.

Nov. '95 - Looking back, looking forward

Beginning the 4th year of Connections, I review some of the topics I believe churches most urgently need to address.

Dec. '95 - Women aren't second-class people in God's sight

Much of what Christian feminists are saying is similar to what Jesus said and did. He rejected traditional rules and customs related to women. Looking back at my own life, I see ways in which I failed to recognize the brainwashing that surrounds us, that in so many ways treats women and girls as inferior or makes them invisible. Some of these ways are subtle, thus especially powerful: clothing, chivalry, ways of talking about money, and even rest-room doors.

Jan. '96 - God isn't one of the guys

We claim that God is neither male nor female, but most of what we hear in church and elsewhere presents God as male. This usage gives the mistaken impression that men are more God-like than women, making women seem inferior. We often use only masculine words to refer to groups of people or people in general, too, making women seem invisible. It's long past time to remedy this injustice, and the church should be actively taking the lead.

Feb. '96 - Seeking God's will about homosexuality

We have no evidence of Jesus having mentioned homosexuality, and the scriptures that mention it seem clearly to reflect cultural practices, not God-given rules. As Marilyn Alexander and James Preston remind us in We Were Baptized Too, and Desmond Tutu reminds us in his foreword to the book, it's long past time for the church to acknowledge homosexual people as children of God and stop discriminating against them.

Mar. '96 - Who qualifies as a Christian?

Different Christians have different opinions about what being a Christian requires. We disagree on whether being liberal or being conservative is right for Christians, yet Jesus was a radical.

Apr. '96 - Christians in ministry 

This Connections discusses issues that were to be considered in May at the UMC General Conference, the worldwide UMC decision-making body, which meets every four years.

May '96 - Our traditions aren't God

Christians express their faith through a wide variety of people, practices, music, belief statements, and all sorts of other ways. Some inspire and enlighten us while others leave us cold or turn us off. We make a mistake if we claim that our favorite or most familiar traditions are the only right ones, or that a Christian whose experience has been different from ours isn't a real Christian. We make traditions into idols.

June '96 - Silence isn't always golden

In Christianity in the 21st Century, Robert Wuthnow observes that although Christianity has always championed community, the church as it has now evolved is ill suited to provide community. He sees the church has become mainly an administrative convenience that provides few ways for its members to interact with each other. Some deliberate changes in our church meetings could help by encouraging attenders to talk and listen to each other.

July '96 - Making conversation

I've been slow to realize the importance of my mother's advice about "making conversation." Making conversation with those around us at meetings and social events is actually part of obeying the teaching of Jesus.

Aug. '96 - The language of heart, spirit, and hope

When we don't communicate warmth to attenders of our churches, we lose many of them. Some of our worship and other activities aims only at participants' heads and fails to reach their hearts. In Fire from Heaven, Harvey Cox suggests that mainline denominations' failure to help their members experience God's presence and respond openly may be a major factor in these denominations' decline. In Can Mainline Denominations Make a Comeback? Tony Campolo notes that transforming reflection happens in the context of action.

I speculate that use of the lectionary may have removed a lot of the passion and spirit that our worship needs.

Sept. '96 - A desert journey

The Bible and other religious writings tell about people finding God in deserts, wildernesses, pits, and other barren places. Sometimes these are physical places, but they can also be metaphors for a spiritual experience. A recent summer trip to northern New Mexico and southern Colorado brought this home to me powerfully with a dream-like message.

Oct. '96 - A surprising response

My saying in the 8-96 Connections that using the lectionary might contribute to making worship dull brought the most responses I'd ever received, and most were from pastors defending the use of the lectionary. But participation in traditional worship services is declining in so many churches that I'm not convinced by these pastors' insistence that their present methods are best. Their reaction leads me to look again here at what makes worship effective.

Nov. '96 - New ways of being the church

In an Atlantic Monthly article, Charles Trueheart writes about congregations in which centuries of European tradition and Christian habit are deliberately being abandoned to clear the way for new forms of worship and belonging. Yet many churchgoers still ignore the evidence of church decline and refuse to make changes. In Church for the Unchurched, George Hunter reminds church members that today's mission field is all around them and that they must speak its language if they want to reach its people. In Dakota, Kathleen Norris expresses her dismay at seeing towns and churches refusing to use information and skills that outsiders brought. In My American Journey, Colin Powell describes his feeling that the rock of faith that he was raised on had moved.

Dec. '96 - Reminders of the early church

A trip to Greece and Turkey made me think about how we treat people whose religious beliefs differ from ours. It reminded me that many of the words we consider Christian came from secular aspects of Greek and Roman society. And it made me sad to see how great, irreplaceable works of art and architecture were destroyed by Christians because the works were created for worshiping Greek or Roman gods and goddesses.

Jan. '97 - Today's generation gaps

For centuries children and teenagers have been seeing things differently from older people, but the difference seems more noticeable now, probably because people are living longer now. In Generations, William Strauss and Neil Howe describe today's generational differences and  point out how a recurring pattern of personalities and moods results from powerful historical events. In Three Generations, Gary McIntosh writes about how differently three of today's generational groups see the church and how important it is for churches to pay attention to these differences in designing worship and other activities.

Feb. '97 - Generation X—Christian or unknown?

The generation born between the early 1960s and early 1980s is not being reached effectively by churches. This Connections reports some reasons for this and suggests some books that can help.

Mar. '97 - The worship wars

In Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down, Marva Dawn expresses her fear that churches have abandoned too much of the traditional Christian ritual and music and thus lost some features essential to real worship. In Praying the Psalms, Walter Brueggemann describes the Psalms as serious speech addressed to a real God, about things genuinely important, and he recommends restoring their inclusion in worship.

Apr. '97 - We want members, but why?

If  we older members want younger people in the church only to help preserve the features we like, we're seeking younger members for the wrong reason and are likely to keep them away rather than attract them. To reach the people we're not currently reaching, we'll have to look at the church with outsiders' eyes. We also need to  think about the church's true purpose rather than just what will keep current members comfortable.

May '97 - Two different systems 

Many UMC clergy, especially clergywomen, find that the UMC system for appointing clergy is really two systems, one for favored clergy and another for all others.  In addition, many UMs find that UMC Annual Conference sessions (regional decision-making meetings) are like two meetings, too—one devoted to issues that only concern clergy, and the other dealing with what concerns the whole church. Also, lay members often find that the fit between pastors and congregations doesn't seem to get near as much attention as pastors and their families'  personal wishes.

June '97 - Two different reactions 

Most readers who responded to last month's Connections have said, in effect, "I'm so glad someone is finally saying openly these things that we constantly observe." But some responders, including the UMC bishop of my area,  have strongly disagreed and said that I mislead people and harm the church by expressing my opinions and observations. 

July '97 - Making what's important interesting

The editor of a news magazine said this is what he's trying to do. Shouldn't it also be what the church tries to do? Improving the quality of preaching is an important way to accomplish it, and lay members could help pastors improve if the pastors would let them.  The communications that churches send to outsiders are also important, so their spoken and unspoken messages need to be carefully considered.

Aug. '97 - Evaluating effectiveness

Looking for God's list of what constitutes effectiveness in pastors may result in using measurements different from those we usually use. Some church members say they want their pastors to be spiritual, but this often seems to mean merely being superficially sweet, which may not be a result that comes from the Holy Spirit.

Sept. '97 - Following the party line

Should pastors and church members always conform to their church's official policies and doctrines? Clergy, especially, can suffer serious financial harm for refusing to conform, but sometimes  following God's will requires it. 

In God-Talk in America, Phyllis Tickle observes that the yearning for experiential religion within an affirming community often causes people to rebel against religious systems. She finds many people feeling that the church has inserted institutional impediments between believers and Christ.

Oct. '97 - Challenges for the church

In Five Challenges, Loren Mead discusses five tasks that we must give top priority if we want our churches to survive. But he feels very lonely in this concern. He doesn't see many church people working on these tasks he sees as essential. He sees most church people and institutions planning for tomorrow as if it is going to be a repeat of yesterday. He believes God always raises up the people with the necessary new ideas and energy, but he wonders whether we will recognize and support them in time now, when they speak about the current need for change.

Nov. '97 - A golden opportunity for the church

In Rediscovering the Sacred, Phyllis Tickle express her belief that a series of wrenching events in the past thirty years has caused many U.S. people to give new attention to the sacred. Many other well-informed observers agree. If they're right, it's a golden opportunity for the church. I wonder if the church—today's body of Christ, we say— is going to die and be reborn into a different form, just as Jesus's earthly body had to die and be reborn in a new form.

Dec. '97 - Conflict in the church

Characteristics of our different personality types influence our ways of reacting to conflict and change in the church. Because so many church members find conflict unbearably painful, we too often stifle views and information we need to hear. This only makes the conflict worse and drives away members who could help make needed changes.

Jan. '98 - Uncontrollable voices

In Rediscovering the Sacred, Phyllis Tickle reports that more and more people are now making the journey without guidance from church doctrines or clergy. Many clergy and some lay church members find dissenting voices scary. Some find political assertiveness in the church—efforts to influence the institutional church system—a bigger threat than members who pursue do-it-yourself spirituality. "Command and control" may no longer be as prevalent as it once was in business, but it still seems to prevail in the church. 

Feb. '98 - Religious tourists or real Christians?

A bishop referred to me and other church members who aren't in top-level church positions as "religious tourists." That has some very negative implications! Doesn't God call all of us to make the spiritual journey  together? How can any of us legitimately say that someone else isn't entitled to make the trip or even to help choose the route?

Mar. '98 - Spiritual discernment in the church

In Discerning God's Will Together, Danny Morris and Charles Olsen describe a process of discernment that could transform the church. Discernment processes have a long history in Christian tradition and have many benefits, but using such a process involves risk, takes time, and can threaten members' turf.

Apr. '98 - Discernment—connecting faith claims with church life

In Scripture and Discernment, Luke Timothy Johnson says that if we want our actions to match our words, we will begin using a discernment process for our church decision-making. He admits that it's messy compared to other methods, but he thinks the benefits are worth the messiness. What we lose by it is the illusion of having control.

May '98 - A challenge—summarizing Christianity

Probably no two Christians would agree on exactly how to say what the essentials of Christianity are, but giving it a try is worth the effort.

June '98 - Help for today's churches, from John Wesley

Although John Wesley lived in a very different setting from ours, some of his methods would still be useful in today's church.

July '98 - Conference—Christian conversation

When John Wesley referred to "conference," he meant Christian conversation surrounded by prayer. Conference was a serious Christian encounter aimed at finding God's will and increasing participants' spiritual maturity. That's not always what today's UMC Conferences—official decision-making bodies—are like.

Aug. '98 - Accentuating the positive

Trying to protect members' feelings and comfort and to keep everything under control, church groups often try to keep the church's shortcomings from being revealed. But that method can cause problems, and it's unbiblical. Optimism can be valuable, but so can facing the negatives. In Becoming a Thinking Christian, John Cobb laments that some church leaders seem to want the church to die in superficial harmony rather than live in vigorous debate.

Sept. '98 - Dialogue, discussion, debate, discernment—dos or don'ts?

In The Fifth Discipline, organizational specialist Peter Senge points out that dialogue originally meant a free flow of meaning through a group. Dialogue is different from debate. In Claiming All Things for God, George McClain contrasts two ways in which churches can approach decision-making. One is to ask "What shall we do?" A better way is to ask "What is God's yearning for us?" He also recommends taking time for silence during decision-making meetings.

Oct. '98 -By our love or by our clothing?

A UMC clergyman's article about why he wears the "clerical collar" made me wonder what such practices say about our beliefs. What do they say about the difference between the clergy and the laity? What are Christians saying when they wear jewelry that features a cross? In Virtual Faith, Tom Beaudoin finds that some younger people use it to mock certain Christian practices. Talking about these practices in church could be helpful.

Nov. '98 - Birthdays—times for growing

The approach of a dreaded birthday makes me not only lament evidence of physical decline but also rethink what God may want from me in my remaining years. In The Crone, Barbara Walker gives the heartening reminder that in earlier societies, older women were seen as founts of wisdom, law, healing skills, and moral leadership. In Amazing Grace, Kathleen Norris reminds us that being perfect in the biblical sense means becoming fully ourselves as God wants.

Dec. '98 - Searching for unity

Christians believe that God wants the church to be a peaceable community, as an example of what God wants for the world. But living peaceably in the church is often hard. Becoming aware of what threatens unity and what promotes it is important.

Jan. '99 - Thinking about worship

Looking at the parts of typical worship services and the purposes they're meant to serve can reveal room for improvement. Different people react differently to different worship styles.

In Two Ways of Praying, Paul Bradshaw describes "cathedral prayer," whose main focus is outward and involves a congregation, and "monastic prayer," which is inward and individual.

Feb. '99 - The church's most important activity

Worship is uniquely  important for the church because God is its subject, no other institution does it, and it is often the main entry point for newcomers. Many churchgoers assume that the kind of worship they're familiar with is what has always been done, but much of it is actually of recent origin. In Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down, Marva Dawn points out that what the Bible presents as central in worship, sacrifice and giving, has mostly been lost now.

Mar. '99 - What's missing from our worship?

In Worship Come to Its Senses, Don Saliers laments that awe, delight, hope, and truth are missing from many churches' worship services. In Amazing Grace, Kathleen Norris says we too often focus totally on ourselves and arrogantly issue imperatives to God, therefore miss the mystery of worship and the experience of God's presence. 

Apr. '99 - Kicking harmful church habits

In Kicking Habits, Thomas Bandy accuses the church of being addicted to many self-destructive habits, and he gives pointers for moving toward needed changes. But the changes, he warns, will have to come from perceptive people on the fringes of the present system or even outside it, not from the church hierarchy or the church members who are comfortable with present conditions. 

May '99 - A dangerous policy

Refusing to let church members have lists of their representatives to decision-making bodies is apparently widespread, I found. It harms the church by keeping important information hidden. In Questions for the Twenty-First Century Church, Garlinda Burton comments on the UMC's reluctance to provide forthright information about controversial issues.

June '99 - Sending horses against tanks

Mainline churches are using yesterday's communication in today's world, observes seminary professor Tom Boomershine. He compares the UMC's current methods to those of the 1930s Polish army, which sent soldiers on horses to confront invading German tanks. Boomershine sees the UMC's current failure to use new communications media as an unfortunate contrast to the early Methodist Church's pioneering methods.

In Questions for the Twenty-First Century Church, Garlinda Burton laments the UMC's failure to communicate through today's public media, a failure which helps make the UMC increasingly invisible and irrelevant to society.

July '99 - Picturing Jesus

Most of the pictures of Jesus that are in our heads and on church walls are very different from what Jesus must have actually looked like. This difference contributes to our forgetting that Jesus cares about the people who aren't like us. In Icons of American Protestantism, David Morgan and other scholars give eye-opening and disturbing information about the origin of the Sallman "Head of Christ" that is on so many walls and in so many churchgoers' minds.

Aug. '99 - Jesus talk and Jesus pictures

In Growing Spiritual Redwoods, Bill Easum and Tom Bandy say that personal talk about Jesus is essential for communicating the gospel to today's non-churchgoers, especially younger ones. In Visual Piety, David Morgan explains why pictures of Jesus are valuable for many Christians. Others, however, are turned off by such talk and pictures.

Sept. '99 - All spirituality isn't the same

When we express the gospel in ways that seem essential to some Christians, we drive others off. In Personality Type in Congregations, Lynne Baab describes personality differences that contribute a lot to our different reactions. In Discover Your Spiritual Type, Corinne Ware presents a similar way of describing how people's reactions to worship and other religious activities differ.

Oct. '99 - Two systems in tension—tradition and globalization

In The Lexus and the Olive Tree, Thomas Friedman describe the new system that he sees shaping world affairs. He believes institutions and individuals that keep acting as if the new system doesn't exist have little hope of continuing to play significant roles in the world.

Yet when police and soldiers invaded a Leipzig church in 1989, worshipers' candles and prayers motivated the soldiers to leave, according to the Leipzig church's pastor.

Nov. '99 - A personal story

Hearing a friend's favorite scriptures read at her funeral made me think what my favorites are. I illustrate the story of my personal journey with them here.

Dec. '99 - The most important holiday for Christians

In Growing Up Religious, Robert Wuthnow presents his belief that spirituality is more deeply rooted in personal histories and in families and congregations than in anything else. Our Christmas memories play a big part.

January '05 - Reaching today's people

In Evangelical and Methodist, Riley B. Case advocates using early Methodism as a model for renewal. emphasizing reaching common people and changing hearts. But part of early Methodism's success came from its willingness to abandon or revise church practices that had become ineffective because of changes in society. We need that willingness today, instead of conforming strictly to the narrow interpretation of doctrine that Case wants.

Part of the difference in Christians' opinions about what the church needs come from personality differences, especially those the Myers-Brigg system calls differences between "thinking types" and "feeling types."

February '05 - The search for the Real

In The Way Things Are, Huston Smith, a lifelong Methodist and leading authority on the world's religions, calls religion "the search for the Real, and the effort to approximate one's life to it." He sees Christians trusting science too little and too much—sometimes ignoring its findings and sometimes thinking it has the truth about everything. He sees differences in temperament leading people to different ways of describing the Absolute. Exoterics see formlessness as a lack, thus see formless things as nothing, while esoterics see formlessness as more real and more enticing than the world of forms. Smith finds Hinduism's way of distinguishing four paths to the divine helpful, and he sees the four paths relating to personality or temperament types much like those that Carl Jung described.

March '05 - Loving and serving—pastors' first responsibility?

Some pastors see loving and serving as their first responsibility, but talent and skill are also essential, and church members differ in what they expect from pastors. In Confronting the Controversies, pastor Adam Hamilton echoes many other pastors by saying that a pastor needs to be in a congregation for several years before addressing controversial subjects in it. But if Jesus had followed that policy, he would have never mentioned anything controversial or said anything that might make his hearers uncomfortable.

April '05 - What is effectiveness?

Both pastors and lay members are responsible for the church's effectiveness. How we define effectiveness depends largely on what we think the church's purpose is. And a church's view of its purpose is revealed by the methods and the organizational structure it uses, as well as by what its leaders say in words.

May '05 - Wisdom—a life-transforming tradition

In The Wisdom Way of Knowing, Cynthia Bourgeault describes a tradition that has been part of all the world's major religions but that many Christians have never heard of. Using its spiritual practices such as lectio divina doesn't require being a scholar, a monk, or a mystic. The wisdom tradition emphasizes x-ray-like vision that comes through the mind, body, and heart and requires all three to be engaged and awake. Surrender opens the way for wisdom.

June '05 - Vitality in turmoil

In an Alban Institute report, James Wind and Gil Rendle say American religion is in the midst of a sea change and a time of crisis whose depths it hasn't faced. Within the turmoil, crisis, and systemic dysfunction that currently exist, ferment, growth, and new vitality are emerging. Congregations can't rise above their leadership, the Alban Institute finds, and lay members' role is essential for helping their churches have first-class clergy leadership.

July '05 - God and politics

In the Bible we find many God-inspired leaders speaking openly and forcefully about issues many members don't want to hear about in today's churches. These biblical leaders speak not only to their fellow citizens but also to rulers. In God's Politics, Jim Wallis urges Christians to be more consistent and more vocal in applying Christian principles to politics, in adherence to the church's God-given prophetic calling.

A Memorial Day service I attended included no prayer for our enemies or the civilian victims of war, and no mention of Christians' obligation to try to eliminate war.

Some Temple-area Connections readers and I are doing the new DVD-based study course "Living the Questions." which is described at www.livingthequestions.com .

August '05 - A disturbing disconnection

Because so much of what I hear when I attend worship services seems disconnected from reality or contradictory to what I believe Christianity is about, I've decreased my attendance at Sunday worship, and I mostly enjoy not attending—a big change for me. Much of the disconnection results from the words of hymns, anthems, and other songs, which give what I consider a misleading picture of human beings and of God. I know many other Christians who feel similarly, yet I don't see churches very concerned about their absence. 

In The Edge of Adventure, Keith Miller and Bruce Larson urge giving as much of yourself as you can, to as much of God as you can grasp. I believe worship services need to help participants do that.

September '05 - Connecting with worship

A steady stream of responses to the August Connections let me know I'm far from alone in my reactions to worship services. The readers I hear from feel deadened by the worship they attend. They want real community. They want opportunities to interact with other people who are thinking and asking questions. They're sad, angry,  and frustrated.

October '05 - Personalities influence worship

Personality differences strongly influence how we picture God, how we recognize God's presence, and how we respond to God, therefore what kind of worship services we feel the need for. The Myers-Briggs system of classifying personality types can help us see why people's reactions to worship services differ.

November '05 - Worship at different stages of faith

Another reason for our differing reactions to worship and other aspects of churches' programs is that we are at different stages of the faith journey. James W. Fowler's description of faith stages can help us understand.

December '05 - Seeking community and truth

Responses to the August 2005 Connections keep coming. They've been more numerous than I've received from any other issue, and the previous biggest response was to three issues about feeling like a church misfit—2-02, 4-02, and 6-02. These responses let me know that even if those of us with similar concerns are in the minority, we are numerous—too numerous for our churches to be justified in ignoring. The messages I'm getting from these concerned Christians emphasize remarkably similar themes, which I list in this Connections, and raise vitally important questions for all of us and for the church. It leads to wondering how to define "progressive Christianity."

In The End of Faith, scientist Sam Harris says that many religious beliefs are endangering our world.

January '06 - A welcome book about prayer

In Times Like These: How We Pray, by Malcolm Boyd and Jon Bruno, contains well-known and less-known authors' personal accounts of a wide variety of prayer methods—a welcome contrast to many books about prayer.

February '06 - Churches hiding the truth

In The Dishonest Church, UCC pastor Jack Good laments churches' failure to report the best available information about the Bible, Jesus, and church traditions, or to encourage members to examine their religious beliefs in light of today's best thinking from other fields. Good observes that some people are more chaos-tolerant than others. He sees the Bible as the family album or scrapbook of our community.

When churches try to keep members comfortable by not saying anything that might upset them, the churches are being enablers, like the people who help addicts to continue the harmful habits that they need to discontinue. 

March '06 - The shock of the truth

Facing the truth about the Bible and Christian history can be jolting, just as discovering the truth about Santa Claus or about sex was for some of us as children, so many churchgoers try to avoid it. But it's necessary for growing up. In The Sins of Scripture, John Shelby Spong reminds us that treating the Bible as the literal word of God has done great harm. In The Hidden Face of God, Gerald Schroeder describes God as a universal wisdom that pervades the universe, in contrast to the person-like being that Christians more often assume.

April '06 - Giving money to God

Use of money tends to be a taboo subject in church, even though Jesus apparently spoke extensively about it, and knowing how to give money to God isn't easy. Tithing is mentioned often in the Bible, but it may be less important than promoting justice and loving others.

May '06 - What kind of God?

The Bible and our traditions portray God in a wide variety of ways.

The 50th anniversary of the UMC's giving women full clergy rights is a reminder of how slow the church has been (and still is) to make needed changes.

June '06 - Empowered by God to resist

A Dykes Foundation seminar, "Mysticism, Empowerment, and Resistance,"  featuring Borg, Crossan, and Chittister, emphasized the need to talk about political issues in church and to have worship that motivates and empowers resistance to whatever opposes God's peace and justice. Much of today's Christian religious language was the political language of Jesus's world. Mysticism is a dynamic, purposeful enlightenment. Just as Jesus resisted the Roman Empire, today's Christians need to resist systems in which a tiny elite dominates the world and keeps the rest of the population from having having enough resources.

July '06 - Becoming the healers we need

In Conflict and Communion, Thomas W. Porter, Jr. says today's great issue is how to break out of cycles of retribution and violence. William J. Everett describes a roundtable worship service that focuses on healing conflict and promoting justice. Real healing requires acknowledging conflict and promoting accountability.

August '06 - Church conflict--how can we help?

Serious church conflict is common, and many churches are reluctant to work at resolving it. Several sources of competent help exist, including the UMC's JUSTPEACE, the Alban Institute, and a Mennonite program. This issue of Connections suggests useful steps for church leaders and other members. When church conflict is wisely addressed, great forward steps can result.

September '06 - Making disciples

How do we make disciples? What makes someone a Christian? In a UMNexus article, UM laywoman Ann Ewing says being Christian is not the "weasely niceness" that churchgoers often assume it to be, and merely going to church is not the same as being a Christian.

October '06 - Leaving without leaving

In Leaving Church, Barbara Brown Taylor explains why she stopped being a pastor of local congregations. She kept seeing members feeling pressured to believe official doctrine that didn't match their experience of God or the world. She reminds us that people have always understood the Christ in a variety of ways. She finds that God's map is vast, with a center and an edge, and that while faith stories are  preserved in the center, the edge is where the best ones have happened. She prizes holy ignorance more than religious certainty.

A pastor wrote that in church conflicts he would deal only with actively involved members. But the church especially needs to hear from those who stay away because they care so much.

November '06 - Purpose driven? Undriven?

An article in the Austin [TX] American-Statesman reported the decline of Zoroastrianism, an ancient religion with similarities to Christianity. The causes of  its current decline in the U.S. seem very similar to mainline U.S. churches' failure to evangelize actively. In contrast, a Wall Street Journal described the aggressive evangelistic tactics taught by Rick Warren, author of The Purpose Driven Life. Training sponsored by Warren urges pastors to actively pressure members to leave if they oppose changes the pastor wants to make.

December '06 - Worship that revives

In a Weavings article, Maggie Ross tells about how in the midst of a landscape beyond words, a priest broke the spell by performing the formal Eucharist rite. She finds that sacred signs efface themselves and point participants' attention beyond themselves. Experiences during a trip to Sicily and at an Academy for Spiritual Formation retreat led me to consider what motivates or helps people to worship and what hinders them. 

January '07 - Wrappings, old and new

Church traditions are like the gift wrappings I save and re-use. They may be beautiful and bring back good memories, but eventually they become unusable. And God will never fit into any of our wrappings.

What's the difference between seeing a pastor as "my pastor" and as "the pastor of my church"?

February '07 - Signposts of renewal

In Christianity for the Rest of Us, Diana Butler Bass observes that the religious right seems to have hijacked American Christianity, causing its literalist interpretations to be mistakenly seen as the only vital and valid form of the Christian faith and making Christians with a different understanding feel isolated. In her survey of 50 thriving mainline congregations, she found that 10 practices especially  helped them to thrive. Among these are hospitality and discernment.

However, many mainstream congregations become merely religious places for social acceptability and business connections, paying little attention to people's spiritual lives.

March '07 - More signposts of renewal

Three more practices cited by Diana Butler Bass as being important in thriving congregations are reflection, testimony, and diversity.

April '07 - Pictures of God

We seem to choose many of our pictures of God because we find them comfortable. Most of our pictures portray God as a person. Some don't seem believable.

May '07 - Vital signs

In Vital Signs, Dan Dick reports the fruitfulness of reading and discussing serious books about theology and the Bible, and of  disclosing information openly and fully. He describes 4 types of congregations—vital, dystrophic, retrogressive, and decaying—and the characteristics that seem to determine which type a congregation is. He distinguishes between members who exert toxic influence in a congregation and those who express holy discontent, which can be a motivator for needed change.

June '07 - What makes someone a Christian?

Is it belief? Baptism? Behavior? Or simply claiming to be Christian?

Joan Chittister quotes a theologian who said "There may come a time when you have to leave the church to save your soul." But in her view, if you leave it's important not to leave quietly, and if you stay, not to stay quietly. If you don't make your reasons known, your leaving or staying isn't likely to help to change what needs changing.

July '07 - A time that changed the world

In The Great Transformation, Karen Armstrong describes the Axial Age, in which the great world traditions that continue to nourish humanity came into being. She believes that we have now diluted our religions' most valuable insights and replaced them with a religiosity that too often harms rather than helps—the kind of religiosity that the Axial Age reformers wanted to get rid of.

August '07 - Empire, then and now

We tend not to notice how Jesus boldly resisted the Roman Empire and contrasted it to the Kingdom of God. We may not notice how empire shows up in today's world. Thus we overlook how we need to oppose empire's current manifestations. A telling example of how oblivious many Christians are is that my own congregation named the largest givers to a financial campaign "centurions," unwittingly labeling these givers opponents of Jesus Christ. Helpful discussions of empire are in God and Empire, by John Dominic Crossan, and Christ and Empire, by Joerg Rieger.

September '07 - Empire—still present today

In crucially important ways the 21st-century U.S. is like 1st-century Rome, say four scholars (Griffin, Cobb, Falk, Keller)  in The American Empire and the Commonwealth of God. John Dominic Crossan describes four types of power that combined to form the social power (power over groups of people) that Rome had: military, political, economic, and ideological. All of these scholars see the cosmic American empire using all of these types today to be much more powerful than the Roman Empire.

October '07 - Empire and the realm of God

John Cobb sees the early church taking seriously the anti-imperial elements of Jesus's message, but he sees that when the empire allied itself with the church, the church changed more than the empire, and that change is still in effect. In The Misunderstood Jew, Amy-Jill Levine says we're mistaken if we think we don't need to know much about scriptures' historical and cultural setting. Without that knowledge, we miss the challenge in many of Jesus's parables. Cobb laments churches' resulting failure to resist empire.

November '07 - A vision that became reality—"Living the Questions"

Two United Methodist pastors turned their vision into reality by creating the study course "Living the Questions" and later courses in a similar format. Jeff Proctor-Murphy and David Felten found that thoughtful lay people welcomed discovering what scholars had learned, but that too often clergy failed to pass this information along, even though they had found it liberating and faith-strengthening themselves. Proctor-Murphy tells how his congregation was an incubator for this innovative ministry, as every congregation needs to be for its members' and pastors' innovative efforts.

December '07 - What should seminaries do?

Besides indoctrinating clergy with the church's official beliefs, what most lay churchgoers seem to think seminaries' main function should be is teaching the how-to skills necessary for being an effective pastor of a church—preaching, first, and then administrative skills. But seminary leaders often emphasize seeking new insight. Their thinking and research may be their prayer.

January '08 - Hearing the spiritually homeless

In his 2006 walk across America, UCC pastor Eric Elnes found thousands of people who identified themselves as Christians but felt so alienated from the faith community that they no longer actively participated. In Asphalt Jesus, he discusses what it means to be a progressive Christian in an age of fundamentalism. "Many Christians who yearn for a more inclusive, compassionate, and intellectually honest form of faith feel so alone," he finds. However, he sees that collapse is waking the church up to its need for change.

February '08 - Nets that can't hold water—images for God

In Like Catching Water in a Net, lay theologian Val Webb observes that many people have no useful divine images, because so many traditional images require them to leave their minds behind in another era. Many people have left their religious tradition because they found its portrayals of the divine unbelievable and it offered no new ways to talk about the sacred.

March '08 - Jesus's politics and ours

In The Politics of Jesus, Obery Hendricks Jr. tells about his discovery of  the true revolutionary nature of Jesus's teachings and how they have been corrupted. He came to realize that the gentle, serene, non-threatening Jesus of Sunday School, whose only concern was getting believers into heaven, isn't the Jesus the Bible describes.

Columnist Leonard Pitts urges social conservatives to be on time for a change, instead of waiting until current social-justice arguments have been settled, as they have done in the past.

April '08 - Using the strategies Jesus used

In The Politics of Jesus, Obery Hendricks Jr. calls Jesus the ultimate activist and describes his strategies that we need to copy. Reading Hendricks's book made me rethink the meanings of mercy, justice, and piety.

Appalling news: FUMC-Conroe TX has ousted its pastor for refusing to condemn his gay son.

May '08 - Thinking about war

War is a taboo subject in many churches, but we need to discuss its pros and cons openly. In War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning, Chris Hedges says war is a dangerous addictive drug. It fulfills our wish to  be noble but suspends the self-critical thought we urgently need.

June '08 - Welcoming worship for today

Worship services I attended at Elk Grove UMC in California were inspiring, thought-provoking, challenging, and heart-warming, all at the same time, especially because of the words their songs included.

July '08 - Community organizing—What is it? Why do it?

Following a pattern begun by Dorothy Day and expanded by Saul Alinsky, Martin Luther King Jr. and others, it's a way to mobilize suffering people to work together for changes that will reduce their suffering. Candidate Obama's background made us newly aware of it.

August '08 - Rethinking Connections

Feeling increasingly discouraged about the church and disconnected from it, I'm wondering about taking a break from writing Connections, finding a new format for it, or enlisting occasional guest authors.

September '08 - Connections readers speak

They're lonely, they wish for open discussion of their questions and of diverse views, they want to make a difference in the world by following Jesus, and they want to hear scholars' findings, but they too rarely find such opportunities in their churches.

October '08 - A family of Christian dynamos

D. L. Dykes, Jr.; the Dykes Foundation; David and Debo Dykes; www.FaithandReason.org

November '08 - Noticing and acting

Guest author Don Manning-Miller writes about working to change the racially segregated way of life he was used to, after he noticed that it was incompatible with the gospel. He finds that the church tends to be too timid and mistakenly tries to make people religious instead of faithful.

December '08 - The Bible's Christmas stories--the gospel in miniature

In The First Christmas, Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan discuss the birth stories found in Matthew and Luke . 

January '09 - Reading the Bible selectively

It's impossible to avoid but important to recognize. We tend to avoid especially the parts that make us uncomfortable.

February '09 - Warned against life-saving books

Some Christians have had pastors tell them not to read the books that turned out to be among their most valuable. So if a pastor tells you not to read a certain book, it's likely to be one that's actually important for you  to read!

March '09 - Afraid of what we'll see?

Like Galileo's contemporaries who refused to look through his telescope, fearful members of First United Methodist Church in Georgetown TX persuaded church leaders to renege on hosting a presentation by scholars from the Jesus Seminar. 

Joan Chittister warns against remaining comatose in the face of untruths that are presented as truths. The church too often commits "spiritual euthanasia"  instead of trying to revive spiritually comatose people.

April '09 - Jesus's way of life is what matters most

Our creeds and traditions emphasize mainly his birth and death, but what he did during his life is what counts, Stephen J. Patterson reminds readers in Beyond the Passion.

May '09 - Curiosity that led to growth

Guest author Julie Fuschak, a central Texas lay United Methodist,  tells her personal story.

June '09 - A courageous book

Reading it almost made me want to stop writing Connections and say "Read this instead!"—With or Without God, by Canadian UCC pastor Gretta Vosper. (To buy a copy, go to www.chapters.indigo.ca/books if you can't find it elsewhere.)

July '09 - A fork in a long road

In Saving Jesus from the Church, Robin Meyers urges us to re-examine the point at which the church changed from the experiential road to the creedal road, and then to move forward on the less-traveled of those roads.

August '09 - More intriguing books

Most of this issue is about Travel as a Political Act, by Rick Steves.  His book is a spiritual autobiography and a plea to Americans to look at the world with open eyes, hearts, and minds and to speak bravely about the new insight they get.

I briefly describe The Great Emergence, by Phyllis Tickle, and The Limits of Power, by Andrew Bacevich.

September '09 - PCCS—action close to home

Several other progressives and I are starting an informal network called the Progressive Christian Center of the South, to help disseminate information, promote justice, and help southern progressives find and support each other. An upcoming educational effort of PCCS will be the presentation of seminars featuring scholars John Dominic Crossan and Joerg Rieger, on Oct. 23-24-25 in Richardson and Temple, Texas.

October '09 - Has your time to blossom come?

"The time came when the risk it took to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom," Anaïs Nin wrote. This strikes me as an apt description of how many Christians come to expand their understanding of God and Christian faith. But many others unfortunately never risk blossoming.

November '09 - I believe . . .

As I start my 18th year of writing Connections, I try to state my current beliefs about God, Jesus, and the church, hoping to clarify my beliefs in my own mind and to help readers reconsider their beliefs and think whether some might need revision.

December '09 - Peace, comfort, and truth

A reader of the November issue asks if the beliefs I expressed in it bring peace, by which she seems to mean personal comfort. For her, they apparently do not bring that. However,  the vast majority of responders say that such beliefs do bring them comfort—the comfort that comes from feeling they are free to tell the truth and from knowing that others understand truth similarly. Many people who come to church only at Christmas might appreciate finding this kind of comfort when they come this month. Different people get comfort in different ways.

January '10 - Thinking about war and peace

In his book Faith-Based War, T. Walter Herbert asks Americans to look honestly at whether our Christian political leaders' interpretation of the Christian message has brought peace to our nation and the world. He finds that many leaders have practiced an imperialist militarism that comes from a dangerous perversion of Christian teaching.

February '10 - Finding kindred spirits

Many Connections readers wish for opportunities to discuss what following Jesus requires with regard to today's most pressing issues. They want to work with others to combat the injustices they see. They want to learn what the best scholars have discovered about the Bible and Christian history and beliefs. Yet in their home communities and churches, these readers haven't been able to find such connections. This issue suggests possible ways to find some.

Also, I report a shocking instance of city government raising funds to support Christian fundamentalist groups in my city's elementary schools, and I urge readers to combat such activities actively and publicly.

March '10 - Reflections

I reflect on comments I heard from 3 friends, about the worship services at their churches, which led me to reflect also on thoughts expressed by Karen Armstrong in The Case for God.

April '10 - A theologian's story

The spiritual journey of theologian Joerg Rieger.

May '10 - Belief and faith

Having faith doesn't mean making ourselves believe what we find unbelievable.

June '10 - Progressive Christians' dilemma

Should we work on combating the injustice that exists within the church, or admit that changing the church is so unlikely that we might as well focus on combating the justice that exists outside the church instead? Members who have been rejected by the church because they don't agree with the majority recognize the need for working for change in the church, not just  in the world outside it.

July '10 - Trying to describe Christianity

Instead of  different versions of Christianity, there seem to be merely different opinions about what its essentials are. This Connections includes an article by Canadian UCC pastor Gretta Vosper, describing how she sees "progressive Christianity."

Fred Plumer, president of The Center for Progressive Christianity, observes that many church leaders don't want their churches labeled "progressive" because they don't want to make waves or they feel their hands are tied by denominational structures.

August '10 - A plea for prophetic voices

In his compelling book All My Bones Shake, Robert Jensen tells about growing up in the church, dropping out and spending many years "studiously ignoring theological debates," then trying to deepen his politics through theology and becoming active in a congregation, and being tried for heresy by his denomination. He feels that our present situation cries out for prophets and that each of us needs to take responsibility for speaking in the prophetic voice.

September '10 - Opinions that need examining

A recent statement by Anne Rice and recent newspaper columns by Leonard Pitts, Adam Hamilton, and Richard Land present views about Christianity that show the need to distinguish between real Christianity and other beliefs and behavior that are actually a distortion of it despite claiming to be biblical or Christian.

In his book Mature Christianity, UMC pastor William Holmes says that in some ways, what we say about God today needs to be a radical departure from earlier ways of speaking about God. Otherwise, we risk seeming merely laughable to come-of-age people in today's world.

October '10 - Vessels that don't hold treasure

An article by Parker Palmer advocates discarding church doctrines and customs (the "earthen vessels" of 2 Corinthians 4:7) that have become too cramped to hold our treasure or that defile it rather than honor it, keeping us from having a live encounter with it. In a short book that's free from the internet, Lloyd Geering describes the origin, character, and dangers of fundamentalism, which Barbara sees as preserving vessels that need discarding.

November '10 - An unbridgeable gulf?

The gulf between the beliefs of fundamentalist and conservative Christians and the beliefs of liberal or progressive Christians sometimes seems unbridgeable. This is especially apparent when we see claims that Jesus is the only route to God or that Christians will go to heaven when they die but no one else will. Some progressives feel that disseminating information about Jesus, the Bible, and Christian history would help to bridge the gap by showing conservatives the need to reconsider their beliefs, but others see that effort as futile.

December '10 - Connections Live! 2010 and Barbara's new book, Misfits

Read about the November 2010  gathering of Connections readers and friends in Temple TX, and about Barbara's just-published book, Misfits: The Church's Hidden Strength.

January '11 - Time to stop getting it wrong

"Churches that 'get it wrong' may lose an entire generation of young adults,"  warns UMC megachurch pastor Adam Hamilton in his latest book. He observes that Christians' unchristian actions, promotion of anti-intellectual and anti-science views, hostility to other religions, blaming God for human suffering, and treating homosexuality as sin are turn-offs for many young adults and also for others who have opted out of the church.

February '11 - The insight that age can bring

Some older Connections readers tell how the broader perspective that has come with age and experience has led them to rethink, revise, and even abandon some beliefs that they earlier took for granted or at least felt they couldn't openly question. Older Christians like these could be among Christianity's most effective spokespersons now, because they're directly addressing the claims that are needlessly keeping today's younger people from finding Christianity credible. Also, some retired pastors could help the church see the need for change if they spoke up now.

March '11 - How can we protest effectively?

Protests are currently in the U.S. and world news, and 36 retired UMC bishops have issued a statement disagreeing with the official UMC position on homosexuality. But the president of the UMC Council of Bishops says bishops are obligated to support the official position as long as it stays in effect. What should church members do when they believe official policies such as this contradict the teaching of Jesus? How can we protest such policies more effectively?

April '11 - Connections readers speak

Responses from Connections readers and others who read a March 26 article about Barbara in the Austin American-Statesman reflect the same themes that have been most prominent in Barbara's mail from Connections readers over the years. These include wanting justice issues to be addressed openly in the church, wanting a variety of views and beliefs to be heard, wanting intellectually substantial content, and wanting to focus on what Jesus emphasized.

May '11 - Is your church Christian?

In his book If the Church Were Christian, Quaker pastor Philip Gulley suggests ten characteristics that he thinks the church would exhibit if it adhered to the values that had top priority for Jesus.

June '11 - Living in the wilderness

Church consultant Gil Rendle sees today's church in a wilderness much as the Israelites described in the Bible were. We got here, he says, by making our identifying stories safe and weak. To attract newcomers now, we must focus more on purpose instead of so much on relationships, and we must listen to creative deviants. Barbara feels we must also change what we're saying about Jesus, God, and the Bible, especially in worship services.

July '11 - Looking at fundamentalism

Texas Governor Perry's sponsorship of a prayer meeting based on Christian fundamentalist beliefs led Barbara to investigate the origin and significance of  fundamentalism.

August '11 - A story that churchgoers need to examine

An unusual but intriguing book by Cynthia Bourgeault points out how the "master story" that is in most Christians' blood contains misleading features and overlooks crucial points such as the unique role played in Jesus's life by Mary Magdalene.

September '11 - A hard job that requires a choice

It's finding the right balance between purity and compassion, which are presented in Matthew 9 as mercy and sacrifice. In his intriguing book Unclean, Christian psychology professor Richard Beck explains how the psychological experience of disgust influences our way of seeing these two qualities, and how overemphasis on purity often keeps Christians from obeying the teaching of Jesus.

October '11 - Communicating with church decision-makers

Delegates to church decision-making bodies need to hear the views of church members, including those they disagree with and those whose views are in the minority.

November '11 - Does love move us into need?

In his book Unclean, Christian psychology professor Richard Beck says that true love—the love that Jesus taught—does not mean just giving from our excess or our leftovers. "True love," Beck finds, "moves me into need, which is admittedly a very scary prospect." If he's right, what does this mean for Christians, with regard to current economic and political issues such as taxes, health care, and immigration?

December '11 - Charity is not enough

Requests for charitable contributions are numerous at this season, and many Christians contribute money and time to worthwhile charities. But following Jesus and heeding the words of the Hebrew prophets seems likely to require more of us—advocacy and maybe public protest and other ways of showing what some Christians call "solidarity" with people who are suffering.

January '12 - Thought-provoking new books

Barbara briefly reviews recent books by Philip Gulley, John Shelby Spong, Jeffrey Sachs, and Val Webb.

February '12 - Opportunities for explorers

This issue describes 3 excellent new opportunities for exploring the Christian faith: Darkwood Brew, presented on the web by Omaha UCC pastor Eric Elnes; The Challenge of Jesus, a new DVD-based series from the Dykes Foundation, featuring John Dominic Crossan; and recently revised DVD-based studies from Living the Questions.