Culture and Context

Viewpoints and commentary on our contemporary culture

Columnist Kendra Mohn

Changing Words

by Kendra Mohn

For the last few years, I've spent a lot of time talking.

Sermons, funerals, Bible studies, Confirmation classes, hallway conversations, financial decisions, and council meetings have all requested my preparation, my interpretation, or my feedback. Even if I said very little, like in pastoral counseling sessions where the person "just needed to talk," my few words have been important to the hearer, and I've been careful to say what I mean and to use words to bring strength, comfort, and healing.

 

Charting the Culture

How Twitter Makes Me a Better Pastor

by Adam J. Copeland

I admit, when I accepted the call to serve as a three-quarter-time pastor in a rural town of eleven hundred people, I did not anticipate that Twitter would be a valuable ministry tool.

I did not envision Twitter would serve as a resource and support; both to my mind and my soul. I did not expect Twitter would make me a better pastor. But it turns out I was just a young naive pastor in my first call. I have now seen the light and understand Twitter as a valuable tool for ministry.

 

Our Take

The Inherent Moral Worth of a Pelican

by Randall Balmer

One of the most poignant images to emerge from the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico was a pelican mired in oil, unable to fly, unable to swim. For those of us who count ourselves among the followers of Jesus, it is impossible not to recall that the pelican is an ancient Christian symbol for Christ.

The question for preachers is whether there might be a theological gloss to the Gulf tragedy, especially the suffering of animals and marine life.

 

Dear Working Preacher

Your Most Important Sermon

by David Lose

Dear Working Preacher,

Would you believe me if I told you that the sermon you preach this Sunday will be the most important of the year? Probably not. It's Labor Day weekend, after all, and so attendance will likely be lower than usual. And there's all this "take up your cross" language to boot, which is hard to understand at the best of times. But you know what? It is the most important sermon you'll preach this year...precisely because it's Labor Day weekend and the gospel tells us that we must take up our cross. Let me explain.

Perhaps the largest challenge most congregations I know face – indeed, what the twenty-first century church faces, to be quite honest – is to overcome the disconnect most Christians experience between what we do on Sunday and what we do the rest of the week. That is, very few of our people find something in what we say in the sermon, what we do during worship, and what we hear in Scripture that actually helps them make sense of their lives in the world. If you're not sure of this (and if you've got the stomach to find out), ask them how often they think about what happened Sunday when they're trying to work through a problem at home or a challenge at work. Or, ask them whether they believe that what they do – at home, at work, as volunteers, as citizens – matters to God. Then ask them if they think that what they do is holy and sacred. See what I mean?