ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS May 13, 2026 The English songwriter, singer, and Grammy-winning composer, Jacob Collier, offered the commencement address at Berklee School of Music in Boston. You can find it on YouTube, and in it, he said, “You are only as powerful as you make the people around you feel.” Those words have been resonating with me for a little more than 24 hours. Empowerment can often be the
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS May 12, 2026 Have you ever had one of those really productive days? Now I won’t claim that yesterday was a “really” productive day, but it felt productive. And I even got to spend a little time with my wife. Productive is a good thing! Usually, your employer appreciates and might even reward productivity. In a world where things need to get done, products need to
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS May 11, 2026 Prayer for the Week: We come before you with hearts full of gratitude for all those who have loved and nurtured us. Holy God, Mother of Life, Parent to the whole human family, you are the God who is forever present to us, and there is no place where we can go where you are not already there, abounding in kindness and grace.
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS May 10, 2026 In the 16th chapter of Acts, beyond the portion that we will focus on in worship this morning, we find Paul and Silas being arrested in the city of Philippi. This was not unusual for Paul, though it did come with an apology after the whole earthquake thing and then the city magistrate learning that Paul was a Roman citizen. In the 40th
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS May 9, 2026 When I was 11 years old, the song, “Hot Child in the City,” hit the charts. I had heard it on the radio, but I wanted my own copy. So I rode my bike to a music store and purchased the 45 to play on the record player. After listening to it a few dozen times, I was a bit confused. The singer,
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS May 8, 2026 Guest Writer: Sandra Clifford (Board Member) I miss coffee shops. I’m not talking about the national chain coffee shops where there is loud music piped in, paper cups with cutesy sayings, and everybody’s on their devices. I’m talking about old-fashioned coffee shops with booths and counters where people would gather, ceramic mugs and real conversation. The type of coffee shops where real life
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS May 7, 2026 Abraham Joshua Heschel was the Rabbi with whom most folks would like to have dinner. He died in 1972, though he was the Rabbi that was often pictured alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. His books on the Hebrew Prophets were required reading in graduate school, while his book entitled, “In This Hour,” gave me insight into the heart of the man who
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS May 6, 2026 After work the other day, on my drive home, I was listening to the 70s station on the radio. The song, “Signs,” came on the radio by Five Man Electrical Band. Without looking it up, I could not remember the name of the band, but as I was listening, I realized that I had not been paying attention to the words. There’s a
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS May 5, 2026 When I was in Indianapolis last week for the Board Meeting of the Christian Church Foundation, the hotel did not have hot water. It was a nice hotel, and they were apologetic, but both mornings I took a very cold shower. Talking to others, they heated up small containers of water in their microwaves and did what some call a sponge bath. That
ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS May 4, 2026 Prayer for the Week: There are places within each of us that go unacknowledged, yet they hold within them unspoken fears and loneliness; unvoiced grief and lostness. In our avoidance grows a lie—an invention rooted in denial, seeking to evade everything that is far from okay. Holy God, Merciful and Guiding Spirit, we can pretend only for a while. The capacity to bury