Category: Uncategorized
-
Ode to Wisdom, Part 1
Tomorrow’s (1/14/23) Sunday school class considers Proverbs 1.8-4.9 through which we learn that Proverbs exposes the folly of the world, not to blind us from our own folly in self-righteousness, but to expose our own folly and say “There but for the grace of God, literally, go I.” Class handouts and video links are at…
-
Does God Speak Presbyterian?
Michael J. Glodo[1] One of my most unsettling moments in a church court was a few years ago when a committee of the court presented a recommendation. As the presbyters were presented with the evidence and arguments behind the recommendation, the chairman of the committee enthusiastically and earnestly endorsed their recommendation by saying, “The Holy…
-
Pep Talk re Illustrating
We live in the shift from the typographic to the iconographic age. The previous shift was from orality to typography, or literacy, as the medium of print gradually emerged, ultimately sealed by Gutenberg. This latter shift, from typography to iconography, has coincided with the emergence of television and other screen technologies. In order to be…
-
Invocation
sounds of tuning, riffs on scales, quiet murmur of voices …tap, tap, tap! baton poised midair backs straighten, scooch forward on chair instrument to lips…inhale & hold! downbeat! overture like sea swells, its echoes will return buoyant upon Being, Wisdom, Power Holiness, Justice, Goodness and Truth right hand, bare arm, slicing air same as split…
-
“Christ Is Risen!”…”So What?”
Tomorrow is Easter when Christians will celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. Churches across America will celebrate Easter. Although many ministers who don’t believe it happened will stand in museum pulpits in what were once churches and try to think of something else to say as chaplains to their museum membership, many others will zealously assert…
-
Baptism is the new (old) penance
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…
-
Proverbs for Beginning Seminary
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…
-
Motel 6 Worship
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…
-
Beginning Seminary: New Student Counsel by Mike Glodo
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…
-
Dr. Frank Farrell, True Greatness
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…
Mike Glodo 