by Scott Bullock | Mar 29, 2024 | Holy Week
Reflection The television series Alone follows ten individuals who are left to fend for themselves and by themselves in the wilderness. Now, these aren’t everyday individuals plucked from Main Street, USA or Times Square. They are survivalists, hunters, and trappers,...
by Scott Bullock | Mar 28, 2024 | Holy Week
Reflection We all are aware of cultures that have a hierarchy—a pecking order. The elite and the hoi polloi. The acceptable and the unacceptable. In such cultures, the hierarchy determines the role. The “hoi polloi” serve the elite, the “unacceptable” serve the...
by Scott Bullock | Mar 27, 2024 | Holy Week
Reflection “I took the money, I spiked your drink, you miss too much these days if you stop to think… waves of regret and waves of joy, I reached out for the one I tried to destroy,” sings Bono of Judas Iscariot in the song “Until the End of the World,” from U2’s 1991...
by Stuart Strachan Jr. | Mar 26, 2024 | Easter
Easter after Resurrection Sunday One of the challenges of the Christian calendar for pastors is that we often put so much energy into Holy Week, that by the time we reach Easter Sunday, and particularly, the afternoon of Easter Sunday, all we want to do is rest:...
by Scott Bullock | Mar 26, 2024 | Holy Week
Reflection Sister Helen Prejean’s 1993 book Dead Man Walking, adapted into a 1995 film starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn, tells the story of her work with two convicted killers on death row. She finds empathy for these men as they relate their lives to her. In the...
by Scott Bullock | Mar 25, 2024 | Holy Week
Reflection In Isak Dinesen’s 1958 short story, “Babette’s Feast,” we see Babette Hersant, a 19th century French chef from Paris, seek political asylum in the Jutland region of Denmark in the home of two pious Protestant sisters who lead the local religious community...
by Scott Bullock | Mar 19, 2024 | Holy Week
Joining the Pilgrims on the Way to Jerusalem For most Christians observing Lent, Holy Week marks the height of the drama of the Christian year. The pilgrims who have made the long journey through Lent look on in awe as they pray and sing through the triumphal entry,...
by Stuart Strachan Jr. | Mar 13, 2024 | Enslaved, Mission Trips, Missional Church
The Life of Saint Patrick So I am first of all a simple country person, a refugee, and unlearned. I do not know how to provide for the future. But this I know for certain, that before I was brought low, I was like a stone lying deep in the mud. Then he who is powerful...
by Alan Briggs | Mar 12, 2024 | Burnout, Ministry, Work
A Leadership Coach’s Perspective I make it a habit to study what’s happening in churches across the country. I get the honor of coaching some incredible pastors, so I need to stay fresh. Any time I’m in a room of pastors I’m trying to sense the texture of the...
by Stuart Strachan Jr. | Mar 5, 2024 | Movie Reviews
My Early Soundtrack What music shaped your early life? For most of us, our parents’ musical tastes probably were our starting place. That music made a deep impression on what we like — and don’t like (ahem, Steely Dan for me). Most of the music I grew up...
