I’ve asked this question at least once in a sermon in every church I’ve served. Why do we go to Church? I think it’s an incredibly important question right now because there are, quite frankly, so many other options on a Sunday morning – far more than when I was a kid and multiples more than when my parents were children. Consider: you might want instead to sleep in, or catch up on some work, or go shopping, or meet a friend for coffee at Starbucks, or run through some email, or read the paper (online or the old paper and ink variety), or go to your kid’s soccer match or hockey game, or see what you missed this week on your...

A few years ago a friend sent me a link to this video, and I’ve continued enjoying watching it from time to time. I thought of it again this week as I know how many of our congregations get “kick-started” after the summer is over and school and other activities get going again. What I like about the video is that it illustrates a number of misperceptions of church – that the people have it all together, have the answers their looking for, etc. – and invite us to imagine the opposite – that church is where you go when you don’t have it together, are searching for answers, and so on. It reminds me that although there are plenty...

Over the next few weeks, folks who attend churches following the Revised Common Lectionary (a pattern of readings following the church year) will be treated to a number of parables in Luke’s Gospel that have to do with money. Luke, more than any of the other Evangelists, seems quite interested in helping Christians think through the relationship between their faith and their finances. And so he shares a number of the stories Jesus tells about people and how they handle their money. Of these parables, one of the most confusing is the one about the “Dishonest Manager” which is the reading appointed for this Sunday. It revolves around the...

I love the picture Spirit of Christ Lutheran Church (St. Louis Park, MN) has come up with under the leadership of their new pastor, Amy Orstad, to describe its life and mission. I love the picture because it reminds us that church is supposed to prepare us to meet God the rest of the week. I love the picture because it reminds us that God is out in front of us, waiting for us to catch up to where God is already at work in the world. I love the picture because it invites a new generation of Christians and seekers to imagine church differently. I love the picture because it’s the “good kind of crazy” that invites all of us to think...