A few days ago I posted a social media meme promoting this coming Sunday evening’s “How Then, Shall We Vote?” gathering. I received some good feedback both online and off. One respondent asked, “Is that really a question?” In her mind it is not. She is pretty confident that her candidate is the only reasonable choice. Another, I think it was a way of saying, “I don’t walk to talk about it,” assured me that he would be voting his conscience.

I am not voting my conscience, and I’d like to talk about it. Continue reading →

I received a letter in the mail the other day. It was from the Society for Human Resource Management. It was their pleasure, they wrote, to inform me that I have been pre-approved to join their society as a professional member. They said that my commitment to successful HR practices at Langhorne Presbyterian Church qualifies me for this exclusive privilege. All I have to do is fill out a simple application and remit $175 by October 28. $195 after October 28.

I hope they are wrong. I hope they have me mistaken for someone else. They need to know that I have no commitment whatsoever to successful HR practices at Langhorne Presbyterian Church. I would be a disgrace to Society and all its other members.

I don’t need to wait until October 28. I’m not joining. Continue reading →

“So, tell me about your church?” He asked the question in the midst of small talk; we were just making conversation, but he seemed genuinely interested in hearing a little bit about LPC. However, our meeting would start soon and I did not want to impose too much on his kind interest in our church. I’d need to keep it short.

For years business people, sales reps, advocates for this cause or that, have used the phrase “elevator speech” to describe that short explanation of what we’re selling or doing, diligently working for or passionately believing in. What would you say about LPC if you had someone’s ear only for as long as it takes the elevator to get you to the seventh floor? Assuming a slow elevator and fairly fast talker, you have about 150 words. Continue reading →

By noon on September 11, 2001, we were just beginning to comprehend the magnitude of what had happened. We could not be certain if it was still happening or not. The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon just across the Potomac River from the nation’s capital, Flight 93 in a field outside Shanksville, for those of us in Beaver, Pennsylvania, less than two hours away.

Jeff, the pastor at First Presbyterian Church, two blocks from our own Park Presbyterian Church, and I talked to each other, as good friends often do, and I can’t remember who said it first, but we knew, without much conversation, that the people of our churches and our little town needed to be together; to pray together and worship together, to come into the presence of God together. We would gather that night, that night of September 11, at Park Presbyterian because our sanctuary was the largest among all the churches. Continue reading →

Church dinners. They are the insider’s best dream and the outsider’s ultimate nightmare. Whose idea were they, anyway?

Church dinners, potlucks, covered-dish suppers: the insider knows the difference and what to expect. The insider knows about scoping out the all the dishes before beginning to load up on the ones at the front end of serving tables. They know the dangers of soggy paper plates and what happens to a jell-o salad when it gets too close to a hot three-bean casserole.

Insiders know that timing is everything. You don’t want to arrive too early for fear of being the first one at a table and having to watch others who arrive later look your way and then sit somewhere else.  You don’t want to arrive too late, because not only is the food hopelessly picked over, the only seats left are next to people with whom you’d really rather not have to make small talk. Continue reading →