Whose fault is it? Blame has no place in the Kingdom of God By Susan Rothenberg Whose fault is it? When a congregation reaches the end of its life, whose fault is it? A pastor who kept putting off retirement, and as he lost energy, so did the congregation? A music director who refused to play… Read more »
June 22, 2017
The Unglued Church
Whose fault is it? Blame has no place in the Kingdom of God By Susan Rothenberg Whose fault is it? When a congregation reaches the end of its life, whose fault is it? A pastor who kept putting off retirement, and as he lost energy, so did the congregation? A music director who refused to play… Read more »
Building new ramps Can we connect people who love God but not church? By Susan Rothenberg One of the reasons I am grateful for Facebook, despite its dastardly power to distract me from the useful tasks I should be doing, is that social media has reacquainted me with people I haven’t seen nor heard… 
Sustainable church Learning from the farm-to-table journey By Ayana Teter Several weeks ago, I was scanning the Netflix library in search of a thoughtful documentary and took a chance on one entitled Sustainable. It was a video essay that detailed one group’s perspective on the farm-to-table journey by highlighting the rich and deep relationships between those… 
Resurrection or resuscitation? Without change, there is no resurrection. By Susan Rothenberg If you go to a church which follows the Revised Common Lectionary, this Sunday you may hear (or preach) a sermon based upon the story of Mary, Martha and their brother Lazarus (John 11:1-44). Jesus’ raising of Lazarus from the dead is the last of… 
Unofficial pastoral exchange program My time as a Lutheran leader By Mary Robin Craig It wasn’t exactly an exchange program—there was no trade involved. But for the past fourteen months, I served an ELCA congregation as its interim pastor. It was an unexpected adventure in my call as a teaching elder in the PC(USA)…. 
Learning to let go Embracing what we cannot see By Sarah Robbins “You really should just go ahead and embrace it.” When something new is happening in our life, like a change in job or relationship, people will often offer this perspective. When we are in pain or in grief or a little of… 
Mind the Gap Closing the space between our values and actions By Susan Rothenberg When my son and I visited London for the first time a few years ago, he was completely fascinated by the London Underground. For weeks prior to our trip, he researched stations, lines, and pretty much had the whole system… 
When Sunday Ambushes Christmas Remembering Jesus in the chaos By Roberta Updegraff Christmas Sunday graces a century a dozen times or less, and I have celebrated it eight times in my lifetime, yet rarely with the awe it deserves. Our children were young in 1988 and easily corralled, for they had been awake since long… 
At the end of the rope Caring for God’s legacy By Susan Rothenberg As an adviser for the Unglued Church, a program in Pittsburgh Presbytery for help with church change, I encounter a lot of churches at the end of their rope. It’s a time in a church’s life when it’s important to emphasize the importance of… 
Church at a Paul McCartney concert? The joy of sharing history and hope By Mary Robin Craig Was that . . . church? There was a call to worship, in the form of a driven, pounding “Hard Day’s Night.” There were confessions, in the form of humorous anecdotes illuminating early years of learning and recording….