Links

I have not been keeping up with my blog browsing lately and have fallen behind reading some of my favorite blogs. This morning I had the chance to play a little catch up and have been particularly struck by several posts. I do not usually highlight other blogs without adding some comment but this time I will some links with a minimum of comment.

Paul Rack over at Raxweblog has a pertinent post about Presbyterians and Evangelism. I think much of historical and contemporary analysis is right on target and worthy of further reflection. I know that if I and the particular Presbyterian Church I serve does not soon become more intentional about evangelism that there may not be a church for me to serve within a few years. Read Paul’s thoughts about evangelism and let Paul and me know what you think.

Melanie Childers Reuter, who blogs at Hands to Soul, has two thoughtful posts that I think are two of her best and most thoughtful since I have been following her blog. In one, she offers her own “Pledge of Allegiance” that I think captures the spirit of what it means to be not just an American but a human being, a pledge not to a flag or any other symbol, but to a way of being in community. I am not sure if she meant the next post to be a follow up to “pledge” but that is sort of how I read it. Bouncing off one of my favorite authors, Robert Fulghum, she offers some suggestions about how to play nice that, if followed, would help transform communities into more livable environments.

Finally, Carol Howard Merritt, in her Tribalchurch.org, reflects on her interviewing another of my favorite authors, John Shelby Spong, who has a new book coming out. Carol offers a provocative snippet from Spong’s forthcoming endeavor and reflects on it and her interview of Spong in light of her own ministry. I hear her and Spong expressing some of my own feelings and thoughts about ministry and the institutional church.

I have found these though provoking posts, some several days old, to have been a nice way to begin a rainy Monday morning. Along with a cup of coffee they have helped me jump start my brain.