A gift comes full circle

Church is the one place we absolutely cannot settle for comfort.

Is providing emergency food part of doing justice?

Celebrating a mother’s love and courage.

Stewardship and the Economy

Who owns what?

A poet values her place most for its capacity for silence.

Seeds hitching a ride on your socks is just one way the Creator makes sure the plant will spring up again next season.

Making promises involves moral obligation and expectation.

Should a congregation change its tradition for the sake of one?

Lament Thank you for calling attention to the oft-ignored “Art of Lament” (August 2012). During times of profound loss, this authentic expression of grief

Fledgling robins need to walk and hop before they can fly.

How do people who start with the same principles come up with such different points of view?

Churches can be a prophetic voice for a covenant economy that is centered on caring for people and the earth.

Three identifiable wings highlight our denomination’s uniqueness on the ecclesiastical landscape.

Fall is apple time!

Finding a new church home can be a time of encouragement and spiritual growth.

A practical proposal for making Sunday worship integral to our weekday life.

Synod 2012 Reportedly, more than a few people want the church to preach the gospel without mentioning political, economic and social issues (News, July 2012). What gospel would that be? Not the good news of Jesus. He calls his followers to relieve suffering of the poor, the foreigners, the sick and prisoners (Matt. 25). John Calvin ceaselessly points out that relief of human suffering is a Christian duty. The poor deserve charity even when they are “contemptible and worthless” or have “provoked you with injuries and insults.” Why? Because they are made in God’s image and God values them no less than he values you (Institutes, Vol. 3, vii). In recent years, governments on both sides of the U.S.-Canadian border have increased income inequality, enforced austerity on the backs of the poor, imprisoned more people for longer terms and shirked necessary earth care. Jesus says taking no notice of the marginalized earns you hell. The gospel, stripped of social justice, is not good news.