Reprinted from Made to Flourish. Like many pastors, Heber Brown III visits congregants from Pleasant Hope Baptist Church in Baltimore when they’re in the hospital. But unlike most pastors, he’s doing something more than praying for and visiting people. Over the past five years Brown has mobilized more than two dozen area congregations into the Black Church Food Security Network (BCFSN)…
Reprinted from Made to Flourish. A few years ago in a powerful op-ed in the New York Times, Nicholas Kristof wrote that “the United States now has a greater wealth gap by race than South Africa did during apartheid. Whites in America on average own almost 18 times as much as blacks; in South Africa in 1970, the ratio was about 15 times.”…
Reprinted from Made to Flourish. Trinity Presbyterian in Charlottesville, Virginia, has hosted a Fellows Program for nearly 15 years. It’s an opportunity for recent college graduates to come to our city, live in congregants’ homes, serve in our church and community, take seminary courses, and work part-time in marketplace jobs suited to their career interests. Dennis Doran has directed Trinity’s program since its…
Barry-Wehmiller is a multimillion dollar global engineering/manufacturing company you’ve probably never heard of and yet “touch” multiple times each week. Close to 95% of all the cardboard used in the U.S. is made on a BW machine (that’s virtually every cereal box at your grocery store). 80% of the world’s medicines pass through a BW-engineered centrifuge. BW holds the patent…
Leadership Network’s Reggie McNeal has written another crisp, insightful, and wonderfully practical book for Christians desiring to “seek first the Kingdom of God.” As is his usual pattern, the book is highly accessible and marries principles with real-life application. The book rests on McNeal’s theological conviction that “God is at work in every domain of culture.” He longs for church…
It’s a late spring day in St. Paul, Minnesota, and I’m standing in front of the Ravoux high rise apartments, a public housing project. When a bright, multicolored bus pulls into the complex, the waiting crowd outside includes several residents. The Twin Cities Mobile Market has arrived. For the past two years, this grocery-store-on-wheels stops at Ravoux every Friday at noon, bringing…
It’s a well-known fact that we often remember better what we sing than what we say (or hear). In the context of the local church, this means we need worship songs with both good harmonies and solid theology. A new collaboration of artists, produced by Isaac Wardell, combines a robust theology of work with beautiful melodies meant for singing and…
I binge-watched Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle over the Thanksgiving break. I’m not proud of it, but as the Good Word says, “God works everything together for our good.” In the last few weeks I’ve gotten farther along in the series and have almost reached the end of Season 2. Season 3 is currently in the making. The…
When Yvonne Streit’s young daughter Vicki suffered brain trauma back in the 1960s as the result of complications from mumps, she found nowhere to turn for help. Programs to aid those with physical and intellectual disabilities in finding a way to contribute meaningfully to society were scarce at best. So Yvonne created one. While it began as a tiny project…
Reprinted from Made to Flourish. For the first part of Amy Sherman’s interview with Mary Lou Erlacher, click here. ALS: Has there been any push back by any congregants regarding the foundational ideas in the FWE movement? MLE: Not really push-back, no. We have a really strong elder team, consisting of men who think well and carefully. One elder, who is…
The Green Room 