by Lisa Ann Pierce I may be the only person you know who, as a young adult, snuck out of her parent’s home to go to church. It’s not that my parents had anything against church; I was raised by an inveterate Sunday School teacher, after all. But I wasn’t sneaking out to go to…

Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. Amidst the violence of this world, we desire God’s peace. In the shadow of deep hatred, we long to live out the love of Christ. In a society still devastated by racial prejudice and injustice, we seek a way to live faithfully, bravely. In this week that has seen…

The following is an excerpt from my sermon this past Sunday. Just to show that I am on board with some of MC USA’s priorities. You can also read other sermons from our “Enough for All” series: Proverbs 30:7-9; 1 Kings 17:1-16. – – – – How do we not worry? Seek first God’s kingdom…

–This is part of a sermon I preached on 1 Kings 17:1-16. The full text is available here. – – – – – I try to be a person of faith. As a pastor, having faith is part of my job description, I suppose. But I tell you what, Elijah has me beat. There is…

Believe it or not, I have been eagerly awaiting the Mennonite Church USA Executive Board resolution–for weeks. Weeks! And it is finally here. Unfortunately. For those of you who just want the Readers’ Digest condensed version: the resolution from the MC USA Executive Board, “On the Status of the Membership Guidelines,” is a train wreck…

Most of you have seen the news about Evana—the new “non-denomination.” And depending on how strong your stomach is, you may have even looked through the entire web site and noticed the way that the “Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective” is being used as code for that one line in Article 19: “We…

There’s a little Facebook game going around right now where you add “with a Chainsaw” to the title of whatever book you are reading. I joined in the fun and posted: There’s a Woman in the Pulpit with a Chainsaw. (Not to brag, but that comment got the most likes in a very long thread.)…

The chapel sermon on our final night of Jr. High camp was always the same: a passionate re-telling of Jesus’ violent death on the cross, with the assurance that, “Every time you sin, you pound the nails deeper and deeper into Jesus’ flesh.” And there we sat, dozens of awkward barely-teenagers, with tears streaming down…

Imagine the scene of a family meal. Perhaps Thanksgiving or Christmas. There’s a big table with all the leaves put in, and Aunt Betty’s tablecloth doesn’t quite reach the ends. Chairs are crowded around the table—six nice wooden ones, a few wobbly chairs brought up from the  basement, a couple of metal folding chairs, and,…

Here is a Call to Worship for Easter morning, based on Isaiah 25:6-10: God has destroyed the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations. Let us rejoice and be glad in God’s salvation. God has wiped away our tears and removed our disgrace. Let us rejoice and be glad…