Membership in the Christian Church of the first four centuries was not come by lightly. As an underground organization, the church had to scrutinize carefully every prospective member, and a prolonged period of probation was a requirement. This period would normally terminate with reception into the Church by baptism at Easter. The final period preceding baptism, Lent, was naturally the most rigorous. Candidates were required to fast in preparation, and to attend catechetical lectures and periodic examinations or “scrutinies.”    –Edward Horn III Lent. Among many Christian congregations it’s become something of a dirty,...

“Chuck Knows Church” is a fun set of videos produced by the Methodist Church’s General Board of Discipleship. Each one presents Chuck – he’s actually an actor by the name of Josh (don’t ask me why they didn’t just find a real person to talk about the church) – talking about one element or another of Christian faith and worship. Baptism, Parables, Potlucks 🙂 – Chuck takes up all these and more. In this episode, Chuck talks about Ash Wednesday, teaching or reminding us of a few of the essentials about Ash Wednesday. It runs just over two minutes, and so it may be a nice way to prepare...

I have, as you’ve probably noticed, had of late a hard time keeping up with the discipline of posting day – let alone twice daily! – but I am re-committing to that discipline as we enter into Lent. Two years ago about this time, I started this blog largely from a desire to provide Lenten Devotions for folks whose congregations were no longer doing that, and I enjoyed it so much I just kept right on going. And so I’m eager to return to those roots as well as continuing to work at connecting faith to issues of daily life. So…Lenten Devotions start tomorrow! We’ll be working through the Passion According to St. Matthew and I’m...

I’m excited. I’ve just worked my way through ChurchNext’s MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) of my Making Sense of the Cross and, well, I’m excited. The folks at ChurchNext have done a wonderful job in taking some of the essential elements of the course and turning it into an accessible – and free! – online learning opportunity that is ideal for individuals or congregations as we approach Lent. The class starts a week from today, and you can find out more about the course here. Again, it’s free. While you don’t need to purchase the book to participate in the class, if you’re interested you can find copies of Making Sense of...

Vocation – the belief that all of God’s people are called to lives of purpose, service, and meaning – has always been one of the most important theological convictions to me. But, as I’ve learned through several years of research funded by the Lilly Endowment, it is also one of the least understood or actualized. Many, many of our people who listen to teaching and preaching about vocation regularly nevertheless report that they do not feel called. That is, they do not see their work and play and volunteering and everyday relationships as things of particular concern to God and the church, let alone view them as arenas of God’s...

I am spending a lot of time in the Rockies of late. Last week it was several days with pastors in one of the Denver metro conferences of the Rocky Mountain Synod on retreat to talk about preaching in a changed and changing world. This week I am visiting with pastors of the Alberta Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada to discuss similar issues. With both groups the question has come up regarding how we might view and speak about our current situation not just as a problem – that is, defining it wholly in the terms of numerical decline – but also as an opportunity. One set of conversations has been particularly interesting to...