by Richard Chrisman | Jul 5, 2018 | For Religious Congregations
Looking soberly at the actualities, it seems churches in the mainline denominations are not often able to achieve our desired racial, ethnic and class diversity goals. Birds of a feather. . . This is lamentable, because we need each other across the human spectrum....
by Richard Chrisman | Jul 4, 2018 | For Religious Congregations
A Public Church is a welcoming church. But avoid repeating “welcome” too many times. Aren’t we overcompensating with our welcomes? They certainly communicate an anxiety to fill the vacant pews which are plainly evident. Everybody sees the sign out...
by Richard Chrisman | Jul 4, 2018 | For Religious Congregations
“The public life amounts to all action and speech, which are coeval and co-equal: the right words at the right moment.” Speech is a species of action, according to Hannah Arendt in The Human Condition (1958). Speech that is public is tantamount to an...
by Richard Chrisman | Jul 4, 2018 | For Religious Congregations
“Besides private life, we are given a sort of second life–the public life.” So wrote Hannah Arendt in The Human Condition (1958), informing us of an entire world that we could inhabit, other than the private one we spend most (some people, all) of...
by Richard Chrisman | Dec 4, 2017 | For Chaplains in Higher Ed., For Religious Congregations
Forgetting the unforgettable–an American trait. So wrote James Baldwin in 1967 about Americans’ habit of forgetting what is unforgettable–racial history. What we cannot bear to look at, we do not look at. If we don’t see it, it didn’t...
by Richard Chrisman | Nov 5, 2017 | For Religious Congregations
“Churches die that don’t ask “Why.” Yes? No. The importance of asking the “Why” question was one of the premises of a denominational workshop I attended recently. Meaning, for congregations to survive and thrive, they need to ask...
