Thought For the Week

  Dear Friends, At a recent pastors and wives retreat I met a somewhat gruff looking elderly gentleman named Steve Campbell. He and his wife Wanda had started a ministry called “The Better Way” in one of the worst neighborhoods (the crime-ridden Short North District) in Columbus, Ohio, in 1986. They ministered there for 32 years, reaching out to the homeless, working poor, runaway teens, prostitutes, gang members, drug addicts, pimps, and anyone in the neighborhood who would listen, or come in for a meal or help. They handed the ministry over to others in 2018, and last year Steve wrote a book entitled, “He went a Little Bit Farther.” (I highly recommend reading it!) The title is based on Matthew 26:39, where Jesus told his disciples to wait and pray while he went on ahead, “a little bit farther.” It’s one of Steve and Wanda’s life-verses, which he uses to encourage others to go out of their way, or ‘go the extra mile,’ in serving others in Jesus’s name, just as Jesus wen

Dear Friends, Today was a momentous day in the history of the church. It was the day in 1521 A.D. that the German Reformer Martin Luther arrived at the Diet of Worms, thinking he would have a debate about his 95 public criticisms of the Catholic Church. For those who don’t know, the word “Diet” referred to the calling together of a formal deliberating assembly of Catholic theologians and officials to consider an important issue, and this one was held in Germany, in the city named Worms. Luther had tried to resolve his differences with the church amicably, hoping the church would see its mistakes and make the necessary changes. He was surprised, therefore, to discover when he arrived in Worms that it was not to be a debate, but a trial. Pope Leo demanded Luther retract 41 of the 95 Thesis’ that he posted on the door of the church in Wittenberg or be condemned as a heretic. So, the purpose of the Diet was not to debate but simply to hear Luther either ren

Dear Friends, In light of our celebration of the glorious event of the Resurrection of Jesus this past Sunday, I pass along to you my FAVORITE Easter poem. It was written by the well-known author John Updike, who after graduating from Harvard University in 1954, began attending a Lutheran church in Marblehead, Massachusetts — a church similar in many ways to the Lutheran church he attended in his youth in Shillington, Pennsylvania, on the outskirts of Reading.   When the church in Marblehead sponsored a Religious Arts Festival in 1960 and offered a $100 prize for the best artwork, Updike submitted the following poem entitled, “The Seven Stanzas at Easter.” He won the contest, received the $100, and promptly gave it back to the church. The poem is as follows. I trust you might enjoy it as much as I have. “Make no mistake: if He rose at all it was as His body; if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules reknit, the amino acids rekindle, the Church will fall. It was n