Ah, Ash Wednesday – the beginning of Lent, the day we make promises to give something up, the night the preacher applies smudgy ashes on our foreheads to remind us […]

On this day in 1924, the infamous “Tri-State Tornado” ripped through Missouri, Illinois and Indiana, killing 695 people and wreaking $16.5 million in property damage. The one-mile wide monster, the […]

On this day in 1983, the final episode of M*A*S*H aired, becoming the most-watched television episode in U.S. history. The  2½ hour program, entitled “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen,” drew in […]

My dad grew up in a Texas sharecropper’s shack during the Great Depression. He was barely a teenager when the “Grasshopper Wars” began. The winged insects darkened the sky like […]

In seminary, I was a youth pastor. Every summer during this time, I served as a volunteer at high school church camp. Those were halcyon days spent in small groups, […]

The National Week of Repentance, launched by Pastor Michael Anthony, has begun. The movement’s website states that its purpose is to start “a revolution of humility and courage…the “only things that will […]

No one really knows the exact origins of Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent.  A ritual for the “Day of Ashes” is contained in an 8th-century church document, but […]

  Read Joel 2:1-2; 12-17  My dad grew up in a Texas sharecropper’s shack during the Great Depression. He was barely a teenager when the “Grasshopper Wars” began. The winged insects […]

    As I prepare to portray Judas on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday at two churches, I am struck again by the King James translation of Matthew 27:3-4: “Then […]

With Ash Wednesday, the shadowy journey of Lent has begun. Lent is a season that doesn’t bring warm fuzzies like Christmas or Easter. You’re not going to find a Hallmark […]