Pastor Foltz is Pastor Emeritus of Saint James Lutheran Church in Gettysburg, PA and author of the the Frontline Study content.
Another practical reason people give for going to Church is the desire to find moral guidance. They believe religion provides a basis for ethics and send their children to learn right and wrong as they did. For most this means learning laws, such as the Ten Commandments, the Golden Rule, and Jesus’ call to love […]
There are two ways to understand forgiveness. The first focuses on it as a law that calls on us to repress our natural human instincts in order to do what God wants. It usually ends up either dividing people between those who obey and those who do not. Or, it promotes confession of sin over […]
If you read much about thanksgiving, you constantly come across statements, such as “Ninety-nine percent of the time, we have an opportunity to be grateful for something. We just don’t notice it. We go through our days in a daze… The gifts or blessings of life are always there but if we are not aware […]
One of the best talks I ever heard was at Muhlenburg College and was given by an Episcopalian bishop. It was entitled something like, “The Future Health of Our Society Will Be Dependent on Observing the Sabbath.” His point was that the only way to cope with the way our technological society controls us is […]
A third practical reason some people go to church in our day is to find a healthy life style. This is new. In the past, spirituality prepared for life after death and often even meant a self-denial that included self flagellation. It could destroy rather than promote physical well-being. Today spirituality has become a way […]
I immediately found myself in the middle of conflict as I began writing about the third practical reason people go to Church, the search for a healthy lifestyle. Traditionalists hammer this new spirituality with its wellness theme as promoting “what I want rather than what God wills.” They advocate returning to supposedly eternal laws that […]
I began my ministry at a time when the liturgical renewal was urging congregations to celebrate Communion every week. Coincidental with this was the house church movement in which small groups began sharing meals and and conversation. Sometimes this was done as an extension of the local parish and sometimes as a replacement. How interesting […]
Last week I used the model of family for Church. After all Jesus did speak of God as father and others as our brothers and sisters. And the early Church did live in a lifestyle we associate with the family. However, when I spoke of extending the family, I came mighty close to falling into […]
Let’s resume examining Practical Christianity, that part of the Christian life that does not necessarily involve the supernatural. In my ministry, I found many people came to church or sent their children, not because they wanted to worship, but because they sought a community that would give meaning to their lives– a place where they […]
The third practical way Christianity offers for overcoming suffering and evil is a loving, sharing community. Lupe observed suffering can be made “less terrifying when families envelop each other in love.” Certainly the New Testament sees this extending beyond the biological family to the entire Body of Christ. One of the many places Paul mentions […]
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