What to make of Letterman? I find myself conflicted.
On his Late Show program Thursday night, David Letterman relayed the true story of a blackmail attempt against  him for $2 Million, starting about three weeks ago. Letterman’s response was both to have the extortioner arrested and, presumably to pull the teeth out of any future threats, [...]

What does it take to stand behind the pulpit at your church?
I’m wondering about the process of ordination at your church, or in your denomination. Are would-be ministers required to go through years of training and bureaucracy? Do they just have to sign a statement of faith and are then good to go? Whatever your [...]

The Pew Forum recently published a survey on why people change religions from the tradition in which they were raised as a child. They have a handy interactive graph that shows why people switch to and from and in between traditions.
But I’m particularly interested in why people who were raised as protestants leave protestantism. I’m [...]

It looks like there will be a lot of clergy members at the Academy Awards ceremony on Feb. 22.
Well, maybe not actual pastors, priests and nuns, but at least the actors and actresses who have portrayed them.
The religious drama “Doubt” has been nominated for five Oscars, including a Best Actor nod for Philip Seymour Hoffman; [...]

Is your pastor’s health suffering as he serves your congregation? We’ve discussed the all-too-common phenomenon of church and ministry staff burnout, but a recent New York Times article suggests that the pressures of ministry can cause physical, not just spiritual or emotional, problems for overworked church leaders:
While medical studies in various denominations indicate that clergy [...]

Via the Out of Ur blog, a story of pastors engaging in civil disobedience… against the IRS. Last Sunday, a group of pastors endorsed a specific political candidate from their pulpits. Doing so violated a long-time ban on political endorsement by churches—and jeopardizes those churches’ tax-exempt status.
I’d like to get your reactions to this. Here [...]

A heavy question from the editor of Leadership Magazine, Skye Jethani:
Something’s wrong. We pastors are the stewards, the spokespeople, the advocates of a message of hope, life, and peace. And yet so few of us seem to be experiencing these qualities in our own lives. Something’s wrong. In a world saturated with fear, insecurity, and [...]

When you’re around your pastor, are you able to be open and honest—or does the presence of a pastor make you clam up and behave differently?
A very short reflection by a former pastor at Dear God raises an interesting, and slightly worrisome, issue:
Now, I am on the outside of the church looking in and I [...]

I’m not a member of the SBC. Despite all the bad press they get, I do admire their resolve. They just had their annual meeting down in Indianapolis this weekend where they elected Rev. Johnny Hunt their new president.
Scott from Scotteriology has chimed in with some (warranted?) criticism. He begins with a few quotations gleaned [...]

If you follow the news at all, you can’t possibly have missed the Barack Obama/Jeremiah Wright controversy that cropped up again a few weeks ago. To sum it up very quickly, Wright is the pastor and spiritual mentor to Obama who caused a stir by publicly stating a lot of, uh, controversial things. Obama has [...]