By Pastor Douglas S. Bursch, D.Min I’ve decided it would be good for me to write down why I support same-sex marriage. I am not attempting to convince anyone to change their opinions or perspectives. Instead, I am trying to communicate why my opinions and ideas concerning same-sex relationships have changed. I hope this will […]
My Brain Contains Multitudes In Walt Whitman’s poem, Section 51, Song of Myself, we find this often-quoted stanza: “Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)” In the context of the poem, Whitman might be addressing how we exist in the past, present and future. Our present […]
This is the second part of a conversation Tim Fall and I are having about social media. We asked each other some important questions about social media and responded without looking at each other’s answers. We found that we have a bit in common. Anyway, You can read the first post at Tim’s blog by […]
Just a quick heads up today. My friend, Tim Fall, who blogs at Just One Train Wreck After Another and I decided to team up to talk about the good, the bad and the ugly of social media. So we got together for a two part mini-series (think The Thorn Birds) that talks about our […]
For 5 years I produced and hosted a daily Christian radio talk show in Seattle, Washington. During my 1,200 plus shows, I tried hard to treat people the way I would want to be treated or at least to speak about them as if they were real people, not just conversation fodder. To ensure that […]
From January 1st through January 21st, Evergreen Foursquare Church is sponsoring a 21 day spiritual focus called Pray, Fast and Find. The following is a handout we reviewed in church to focus our attention for the upcoming event. I encourage you to use this handout before you start your 21 day journey and also use […]
I highly recommend this thematic Bible reading plan prepared by Craig Desjardins and printed with his permission. This is a really powerful and eye-opening way to read your way through the Bible. Please feel free to share with your friends and congregation. 2016 Single Sheet 2016 Bible Reading Calendar
(This post was originally published at Jennifer Newhart’s blog on a series concerning The Books that Read Us) Gordon Fee’s God’s Empowering Presence is a nine hundred plus page, dense theological doorstop of a book. If I hadn’t been assigned to read it twice during my Masters of Divinity work, I would never have read […]
Things to remember before I try to change the world. God is not a Republican. He’s not a Democrat, a Libertarian or a member of the Green Party. God is neither far right nor far left. He is definitely not a moderate. God’s not even an American. God will not show me His papers. God […]
I’d like to take a break from all the foolish talk and actually just focus on stuff the Bible talks about. So let’s talk about kindness. I have about 6 years of postgraduate theological education, but my theological background is not needed to figure out the Bible’s view of kindness. Just go to your favorite […]