Three is a Magic Number

A graph I created for a class. Data from US Gallup Poll- . http://www.gallup.com/poll/1690/Religion.aspx Being at an ecumenical seminary, we talk about the mainline decline .  As bodies, the Lutherans, Methodists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, UCCers, Unitarians, Baptists, and others have a certain amount of anxiety about what's happening to them.  No one can argue with the numbers, the mainline decline is real.  Some see it as a problem in need of a solution. I'm one of those people who believe that the trend is irreversible.  The ship has sailed.   Yet I still choose to stay in my denomination, knowing that God continues to work in these churches.  We still have lots of people to minister to and the finances to do it.  However, I refuse to live in fear of the inevitable collapse--I've given up on worrying about it.  Frankly, I've even stopped worrying about whether all of North American Christianity is going to collapse .  Fear is a bad motivator for anything,

 The view looking up the sidewalk from my office I love, love, love walking across college campuses during passing times, especially in the fall after a campus has been asleep for the summer.    Passing times look like a beehive—everyone has a place to go, something to do.   As an undergrad, I remember being in the midst of the hustle, bustle and realizing, “I’m actually a college student!”   During graduate school, I recall holding my head high as I headed to class thinking, “I can’t believe I’m a graduate student!’”   Okay, disclosure time…. After 10 years of teaching in higher education, I still find myself giddy as I walk across UW-Stout’s campus during passing times and marvel at the fact, “I’m a professor!” [Okay, technically I’m a lecturer, but this is a trifling point.]   And when I walk from class to class at seminary, I revel, “I’m a stinkin’ seminarian, for real!” Last night, I went to a book event by Nadia Bolz-Weber, a Lutheran pastor, who just publishe

In a college sophomore speech class, I was asked to examine Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream Speech" for rhetorical devices.  The very next day I declared Communications as my minor.  As the country celebrated the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington this last week, I spent some time reflecting on the profound impact listening to the whole speech had on me 19 years ago.   Tonight, I worshipped at Solomon's Porch, the place which will become my church home for the next 9 months as I complete my internship with them.  As a group, we read the Sermon on the Mount from start to finish aloud.  Before we started, the pastor, Doug, predicted it would take us about 10 minutes to read it and compared this to the amount of time it took MLK to deliver "I Have a Dream." I don't know if Doug was intentionally making a connection between the two speeches or not, but last spring during a study of Matthew, I read   something like, "The Sermon on t