For my Lenten-friendly Protestant friends, I sympathize. You might have been raised in a tradition which regularly observed the liturgical calendar and find it perfectly normal. On the other hand you may be from an anti-liturgical tradition suspicious even of saying the Lord’s Prayer in unison. (Hint: If you get one pew to lag behind Read more

Proverbs for Beginning Seminary Mike Glodo[1] Accept that you are now a big fish in a pond with other big fish – It is possible, even likely, that you are coming from a context in which your gifts for ministry and your service were known and appreciated by a lot of people. You have left Read more

Motel 6 Worship Christianity Today online recently compiled the response of several worship leaders to the question “should churches dim the lights for worship?”[1] What disappointed me was that none of the pro-light-show responses made any references to pop culture, either past or present. If worship lighting people aren’t making hip pop culture references, then Read more

Get thee to the church – to a church, yes, but also to the church. Your time in seminary can provide the opportunity to experience a variety of local churches. You may have just left a situation in which you are extremely busy and highly committed to a local church and you’re looking forward, at Read more

The following was written to Del and Nancy Belcher upon last week’s death of Nancy’s father, Frank Farrell. Frank and Marjorie “retired” to Orlando where he taught church history and Christian classics at Reformed Theological Seminary’s new campus during its first decade. A link to Frank’s obituary can be found at the end of the letter. A lovely Read more

Honesty can be a challenge at a funeral. Truth be told, for some people, it’s hard to come up with a whole lot of good things to say when they’ve died. Funerals have a way of making saints out of sinners. That’s why the best preacher for a funeral may not always be the most Read more