Those of us from a certain “era” will likely remember celebrating Valentine’s Day at school. It all began with a shoebox. We would each bring a shoebox to school and take time in class to cover the box with construction paper, decorating it with paper hearts. And...

On Thursday of this week, I ran into a clergy colleague who lives in our neighborhood. It was a snow day, and I was out in the snow with my boys. When I saw my neighbor, a pastor in another denomination, my first question after greeting her was, “So, are you going to...

Most of the year, I tend to preach from the recommended scripture readings from the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL). As some of you may know, the RCL is a three-year cycle of scripture readings that covers most of the major (and some relatively minor) scriptural...

I had a conversation with someone before the 2024 election about the place of preaching when it comes to addressing world matters. It was a friendly back-and-forth conversation in which two people were trying to get to some mutual understanding. What is the place of...

T’was the week before Christmas,and all through the churchthe Pastor and Organist tried not to lurch.Prayers had been said over the copier with careIn hope that the bulletins wouldn't be bare. . . Yes, it’s the most wonderful time of the year! That special time when...

Earlier today, I was interviewed on Zoom by one of BPC’s bright college students, Tally Coulter. She was doing some research for a class at Duke University on what faith-leaders know about militant Islam. I know. . . it seems like an odd subject, and Tally admitted as...

I’m going to admit when it comes to decorating for Christmas, I’m really glad that there are people who love it. I “like” decorating for Christmas, but it doesn’t give me as much joy as it does some folks. Maybe this stems from traumatic memories from my youth - lying...