Pity the preachers who have but 52 Sundays a year to cover the essentials.
First, they must acknowledge the church year, with appropriate sermons for Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and Ascension Sunday.
There is also the civil year, obliging them to mention Valentine’s Day, Saint Patrick’s Day, Presidents’ Day, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving—not to mention Law and Order Month, Get-Out-the-Vote Week, and National Pickle Week.
Then there are the denominational directives to observe Stewardship Sunday, an annual missions conference, Christian College Sunday, World Hunger Week, Bible Translation Week, and Pension Fund Day.
And depending on its theological stripe, each church has additional expectations.
The Church of Earnest Relevance, on the other hand, gets edgy if it doesn’t celebrate WCC Sunday, NCC Sunday, Pro-Choice Sunday, Lettuce-Pickers Sunday, Support-the-Sandinistas Sunday, Gay-Rights Sunday, and I’m-Sure-Glad-We’re-Not-Bigoted-Like-the-Fundies Sunday.
If you preach at a Cathedral of Unlimited Possibilities, you can’t let a year pass without God-Wants-You-in-a-Rolls-Royce Sunday, Where-Is-God-When-Your-Income-Isn’t-Six-Figures Sunday, and Impossible-Is-a-Dirty-Word Sunday.
Wow Before You Bow Churches demand Jocks for Jesus Sunday, Criminals for Christ Sunday, Midgets for Morality, puppets, gospel magic, and a Bust Our Bus Attendance contest.
Pray for our pastors. As you can see, ...
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Data suggests that, when their attendance drops, these nominal Christians become hyper-individualistic, devoted to law and order, cynical about systems, and distrustful of others.
As a longtime Christian bookseller, I figured I’d enjoy a fellow bookseller’s ode to browsing, buying, and reading. Here’s why it left me feeling conflicted.
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Data suggests that, when their attendance drops, these nominal Christians become hyper-individualistic, devoted to law and order, cynical about systems, and distrustful of others.
Locals are increasingly running African mission hospitals. The next challenge: keeping foreign donors.español
As a longtime Christian bookseller, I figured I’d enjoy a fellow bookseller’s ode to browsing, buying, and reading. Here’s why it left me feeling conflicted.
The local church is small and placed for a reason.
