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Last night, St. Paul middle schoolers observed the season of Advent. All of it. In less than two hours. But, please, don’t try this at home. 678 is a gathering of – you guessed it – sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students that happens on the fourth…
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Last month, Peter DeMarco wrote a letter that was later published in the New York Times. It was addressed to the numerous medical professionals who cared for his 34-year-old wife in the hospital. Laura had suffered a severe asthma attack and later di…
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A few years ago, during the busiest part of a Sunday morning at St. Paul, a 4-year-old boy went running past me at full speed. I gently interrupted his race and asked him to please walk and be careful of everyone around him. “There’s a lot of people…
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Having just written an editorial on the Donald Trump victory, for the magazine I help publish – The Christian Century – I’m reticent to preempt that piece with a reworking of its contents here. But since the election results are still so fresh, with…
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It’s all said and done, the Chicago Cubs have finally won another World Series. While I’m not that invested in baseball, it was a welcome change to have one positive thing to rally around with others. Cubs fans are so devoted, their sense of history…
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I got my flu shot today, and I sure hope it works, because I hate being sick (I’m sure you do, too). Just in case the shot doesn’t work, I’ll take a multivitamin every day and remember to wash my hands after I’ve been in public. If I notice other peo…
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Little things make a big difference. Don’t take my word for it—just ask the person in charge of marketing at the local Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse in Ann Arbor, Michigan. They came up with what seemed like a foolproof plan to both engage the large footba…
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Last Friday more than 500 people from throughout the Quad Cities gathered in Bettendorf around tables set with delicious meals and vases of sunflowers. But it wasn’t the food or the decorations that brought us there. The elected officials and police…
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I led a class on religious pluralism last Sunday in our congregation. In the days that followed, several people came up to ask, “What did you mean when you said, ‘God is not a Christian?’” Here is a more thoughtful reply than I may have provided thos…
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Sometimes on Sunday mornings I take notes on my bulletin. I try to be subtle, but inevitably it is visible. Occasionally people ask what I’m writing. The answer is always some form of to-do list; a to-do list of people to call or visit. Sometimes it…
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It’s confirmation season at St. Paul! The confirmation ministry of any church has several goals, but put most simply, we want to these kids to know that they are loved, so they can love God and love their neighbors as part of the community of faith….
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Every year at Carrie Busey Elementary School, my classmates and I would take part in the Presidential Fitness Test. I don’t recall all the specifics (perhaps because I’ve tried to block it out of my memory), but here’s what I do remember. The Preside…