Body Language — By Jessica LaGrone (March/April 2025) — The first paying job I ever held was as a Health Aide in a doctor’s office that primarily treated patients and families who were unable to pay for medical care. I wasn’t qualified to do much in the way of real
As we approach the 5-year anniversary of the release of All Creation Sings, we are interested in the impact that this resource has made in your congregation and community. Share a photo of a copy of All Creation Sings where you use it, or in the hands of the people
Opening Reflection: Declaring Allegiance and New Life The journey of faith begins with a profound declaration of allegiance. Just as ancient Israel declared “The Lord our God, the Lord is one,” pledging to love Him with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, so too, in the New Testament, baptism
Why Churches Die Why are churches dying? There are pretty common reasons why churches die. Some are so sick that they are a few years, perhaps just months, from death. But too many refuse to do anything. Any potential and dramatic turnaround will not take place because these churches do
It was 1970 or thereabouts, and I was an undergraduate of middling achievements. On my own, not for a class, I had just read Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire—the whole mad thing: the forward, the poem, the commentary, and even the index, with its haunting coda, “A distant northern land.” I
Joseph Smith was tasked by the Lord to do something rather unique for a backwoods, upstate New York farmer now living in Northern Ohio. The Prophet Nephi had seen a vision some two thousand four hundred years before that many of the plain and precious things which were in the
Why We Do What We Do — By Tammie Grimm (March/April 2025) — I require students in my Christian formation classes to read John Wesley’s Character of a Methodist as their first assignment. I want them to hear from Mr. Wesley himself that though early Methodists of the 18th century
I’m still reflecting on our time together this past Sunday, delving into Acts chapter 4. What a powerful reminder it was of the incredible transformation we see in the Apostle Peter and the unwavering courage of the early church. The core message that God wanted to impress upon us from