These last couple weeks we’ve been wearing name tags during in-person worship services.  It’s good to remind each other who we are, or at least what our parents named us.  After living most of my life as the only Joel in the room, I now enjoy being one of several…

We live, as some have observed, in an attention economy.  Attention, like time, is a limited resource.  Because where we direct our attention impacts what we buy, getting and keeping our attention is a key strategy for those with something to sell. Attention is also a spiritual resource.  It is…

The church camp I grew up going to every summer had a tradition that, in retrospect, was somewhat odd. One of the songs we regularly sang as part of mealtimes or worship services was the folk song “500 Miles.”  I always naively assumed this was just a camp song, and…

In the late 1700s the Russian leader Catherine the Great issued a decree inviting Europeans to come settle the newly conquered lands of the Russian Empire in present day Ukraine.  German speaking Mennonites answered the call.  They had previously fled persecution in the Netherlands and viewed this as an opportunity…

Tomorrow, February 18, is the one-year anniversary of Edith leaving sanctuary.  She lived in our church building for 40 months to avoid deportation.  She has been living with her family in Columbus and now has a work permit.     Last week a group of us accompanied Edith to an ICE…