I rarely wear a shirt with a clerical collar — or anything else that indicates I’m ordained clergy. In my little Mennonite congregation, everyone knows I’m their pastor, and besides, among the priesthood of all believers, we are all called, and I don’t want to look pretentious.
Polls and surveys note the largest trend in American Christianity today is the rise of nondenominational churches. Why? And why now?
Amos was not a professional prophet, but an uneducated shepherd who preached social justice and denounced exploitation of the poor by the rich. He was especially harsh on the rulers, priests and upper classes.
I will never forget the evening of Dec. 14, 2023. That was the night our daughter called, panicked and in tears. A deranged gunman was on the loose, and she and her family were in his crosshairs.
Members of a community cannot flourish when they are concerned about their safety or the security of their belongings.
Nearly 10 years ago, I approached a conference minister in what was then Franconia Mennonite Conference about becoming a pastor.
In a nation fractured by war, where women’s bodies have become battlegrounds and bulldozers have destroyed houses in the name of “development,” Ethiopia’s Meserete Kristos Church faces a reckoning.
As the Israeli government’s siege starves the people of Gaza, aid workers are now joining the same food lines, risking being shot just to feed their families. With supplies now totally depleted, humanitarian organizations are witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes.
