By Paul Koch – Ever since my wife and I returned from our adventure backpacking in the High […]
Christ
By Cindy Koch – Today in our world there is a battle between men and women. As a […]
By Paul Koch – Today in the church year we turn our attention to the transfiguration of our […]
By Cindy Koch – Most of us tend to go one way or the other. Along the spectrum […]
By Paul Koch – Easter is one of the greatest celebrations of the church year. Alongside of Christmas […]
By Joel A. Hess – A couple of years ago, Pope Francis announced that it would be easier […]
By Cindy Koch – Revelation is the scariest book in the Bible, says almost everyone. I just mentioned […]
By Joel A. Hess –
Lions don’t make good pets. Every year we read a story about some poor fool who wanted to have a wild animal as a pet. A couple of years ago, a woman’s monkey mauled her friend. I remember trying to have a raccoon as a pet. It didn’t work out for either of us. Then, of course, there are pythons sneaking in the neighbor’s bushes, alligators in New York sewers, and from time to time a Lion leaping over his owner’s fence and rambling down Highway 131. Wild animals don’t make good pets. Yet we can’t help trying to domesticate them.
By Cindy Koch –
“It’s just confusing,” she said. I waited another minute as she fidgeted with her pink ribbon headband. As force of habit, she twirled the ribbon and then chewed on a chipped blue nail polished thumb. Not usually the careful thinker of the class, I almost wasn’t ready for the question for which she was trying to find the words.
By Paul Koch –
When you go to a church, not just this church but really any church, you enter a place that is intentionally designed and laid out for a specific purpose. There are places to sit, these days padded pews or even chairs that are designed to keep you engaged and comfortable but not drowsy. There are the places where music is played and where the word is preached. There may or may not be various symbols of the faith in a church, there to give the wandering eyes something to focus on. Often times there is a large cross that serves as a focal point. There could be screens upon which images are projected that are used to help convey the message and set the mood, to keep the hearers up to speed on what is coming next. We have things like air conditioning for the warms summer days and heaters to keep us toasty during the winter. All in all, church is something we’ve come to see as a comfortable, predictable, reliable place—something that is well established and controlled.
