Pastor Foltz is Pastor Emeritus of Saint James Lutheran Church in Gettysburg, PA and author of the the Frontline Study content.
My first response to Sister Joan remains that she seems to be writing about the self-evident. My second is she confronts exactly what is wrong with our present society. Her take on humility that she designates as the lost virtue is a perfect example. Once you examine what she, Benedict, and Jesus say about humility, […]
I really experienced what St. Benedict meant about the importance of conversation in any Christian community while teaching Sunday School last week. I was pointing out how much Luke-Acts associated the Holy Spirit with speaking boldly. A good one-third of this action-packed history, over 300 of its 1000 verses, are speeches. Some participants responded by […]
I am having a terrible time writing this series. I have studied, examined, and lived Christian community for such a long time that I do not know where to begin. As many of you know, my partners, Ed Keyser, Tim Braband, and I very consciously tried to build a congregation based on the vulnerability of […]
A change seems to have taken place in the relationship between church and society. Although it was long coming, most of us did not pay much attention until the recent presidential campaign. It was taken for granted that church and society had a congenial working relationship. Many even spoke of the church as the cutting edge […]
Let’s take a quick look at various kinds of Christian community that have been practiced in our history. Most forms that served well in one period no longer worked in later ones, at least not in their original shapes. Even though I am only capable of offering a rough account, I hope to supply some […]
A number of my friends are raising questions about Christian community. They are finding our present forms fail to enrich, nourish, or inspire their lives. Many are frustrated after having tried one congregation after another. Our conversations have convinced me that they are not antichurch. They are genuinely seeking to live with integrity in a […]
“God helps those who help themselves.” That’s today’s half-truth. The problem of a half-truth, of course is that it is not the whole truth. It is only part of the story. At first a half-truth sounds like something we believe but once we give it some thought, we are not quite sure what we are […]
The most important challenge for a Eucharist liturgy is to express a community meal rather than an institutional ritual. The Church has not always done a very good job with this one. Too often, the service is regarded as fulfilling requirements that enforce the authority of the institution. Only those commissioned by the authorities are […]
The official title of the communion meal is the Eucharist, a Greek word meaning thanksgiving. By examining how this title applies we can learn a lot about the sacrament. First, thanksgiving is given a prominent place in the official account of the last supper in I Corinthians 11. That account is the basis of the […]
In our technological society, we forget how important remembering the past is for keeping our balance in life. Faith, hope, and love have always been used to summarize how Christians make decisions. Faith primarily is trust in the story that begins far back in history. Hope is the promise God makes in that story. Together, […]
Frontline Study is an online discussion of the scriptures, inviting you to share your comments and your reflections on each weekly topic. Simply click on the "Add Reply" text at the top of each post to see what others have posted and to add your thoughts.
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