The clever brains and rough hands which conceived and constructed European cathedrals and monasteries also built barns — and, quite naturally, in a similar style. The banked barn, popular in Ohio, shows the influence of church architecture. It's a two-floor rectangular barn that is normally built into a hillside. The upstairs layout suggests a basilica with a center bay inspired by a nave, and the side bays reflect church aisles. You've probably noted the irony by now. Jesus warns us about being barn-building fools, yet the barns we build are modeled after the places where we worship the one who warned us about barns. But barns aren't bad. Jesus asks whether we really need to build big

I read an article recently by Thom S. Rainer, who is a church consultant when it comes to church growth and vitality, where he stated there are indications that smaller churches may be in a great position despite the declining numbers in worship attendance per Sunday. He stated the median size church which use to be consider from 100 to 249 in worship has moved downward from 100 to 70 in the past ten years. And while that seems like bad news for any church, it means one-half of all American congregations have fewer than 70 in worship attendance. And yes, more people are attending larger churches than they were in the past twenty years, but he sees positive outcomes as a result of a few parti

Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. 1 John 4:11 That word, "ought," caught my eye as I was reading it alongside the recent accounts of the mistreatment of asylum seekers and refugees at our southern border. Men, women, and children crammed into spaces that we would not put livestock in! And yes, while we have just finished talking about our love for creation: our sacred earth and sacred work, I wouldn't want livestock subjected to that environment as well. When the initial issues of overcrowding, lack of humane treatment, and the separation of children from their parents was first reported, I was moved to take action concerning these atrocities done in this countr