The week before the latest NFL, pro football season kicked off, an acquaintance who has remarked several times about my affinity for the Cleveland Browns commented on how good they were looking this year. “When you’ve been a Browns fan for 60 years, you know better than to buy into the hype,” I replied. “And…
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I no longer read a newspaper on Mondays. At least, not the dead-tree variety. Scanning local news requires going online after our city’s paper recently cancelled Monday deliveries. A fate too familiar to newspapers these days. I guess I shouldn’t complain too much. Much larger cities—Pittsburgh, New Orleans, and Birmingham among them—have gone through print-edition…
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Living in West Virginia, the sight of three crosses on a hillside—the center painted gold, flanked on each side by a pale blue one—is a common sight. However, until I attended a presentation recently by a Marshall University professor, I didn’t know much about the fascinating story behind them. David Pittenger, dean of MU’s graduate…
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Fertilizer. I guess it’s been on my mind a lot this summer as I have surveyed the pathetic output of our side-yard garden. In the past, we often picked tomatoes into October. Not this year. It’s the worst I’ve seen in an on-and-off practice of nearly 40 years. I could say we plucked a dozen…
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With the megachurch movement alive and well—and forecast to see even bigger growth—it is easy to get enthralled with numbers in church life. Namely, the bigger we are, the better. I have discovered that isn’t always the case. Case in point was the recent monthly worship gathering of an interdenominational group that sponsors regular spiritual…
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The recent marital separation of bestselling author Joshua Harris — whose 1997 book, I Kissed Dating Goodbye, propelled him to national fame—didn’t raise too many eyebrows. Sadly, divorce is too common in our world to cause a kerfuffle. However, when Harris followed soon after with an announcement that he was walking away from his faith…
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Two more crimes were committed last week in full view of millions of Americans. Yet no one will be arrested or charged with any violations. I refer to the latest round of Democratic presidential debates, which began in late June—more than 16 months ahead of the 2020 election. I know I’m not the only one…
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The world recently marked the 50-year anniversary of the first moon walk by astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. For me, it was also a major event, for two reasons. First was the trip down Memory Lane. Armstrong hailed from Wapakoneta, Ohio, just 15 miles south of my hometown of Lima. At the time, a…
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Nearly three years ago, our city of Huntington, West Virginia made national headlines after 26 people overdosed on fentanyl-laced heroin in one afternoon. Given the negative image that accrued from such notice, it was heartening to see a mid-June follow-up report on 60 Minutes. It spotlighted the efforts since that have registered significant progress in…
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With our church in the process of launching small groups as a way of building more community on our congregation, I’ve been thinking lately about the need for such closeness. In his sermon about this initiative, our pastor read from Acts 2:42-47, the classic case study for authentic church growth. Especially the last two verses…
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