Surprising...

Sundays can be a bitch. I get up before daylight and head for the church. I open up the joint. I putter around and straighten hymnals. I make ready. I preach the sermon three or four times. I throw a nerf ball around the sanctuary while I get my mind straight. I do this many Sundays when I don't believe in God.

Baptist minster Gordon Atkinson, from his book, RealLivePreacher.com

Good words to you...

The 24 essays and 10 poems in this collection address the eternal oppositions of good and evil, virtue and vice, creation and destruction, the sorrows and the exaltations of the heart, mind, and soul; and the ceaseless quest for God.

From the preface to the book, The Best American Spiritual Writing of 2004, edited by Philip Zaleski.

A leap of faith..

During budget deliberations, when it appeared the budget would fall $25,000 short, the leadership of a congregation refused to cut back, and added a line item of "additional generosity." The church raised the money later in the year. If it's the right thing to do, the money will follow.

Orange jello

On one page there's a recipe for that molded salad of orange gelatin with stuffed green olives and shredded cabbage that has dogged my ministerial life, and which appears at my house whenever I so much as have a cold. There should be a law to prevent recipes for molded salad from appearing within twenty pages of any article having to do with religion.

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson

Evangelism R Us

Let's pretend you are someone who might be willing, in theory, at some point, possibly, to consider doing something that, while not evangelism-type evangelism, still could be in some way construed as a sort of sharing of hope. Kind of.

From A Shy Person's Guide to the Practice of Evangelism, by Steven Bonsey

Consider what you're paying for.

I urge readers not to stay at hotels that support the porno industry by having adult movies on TV. Ask before you make a reservation. Do not be swayed by the argument that "the market demands it." This is complete hogwash.

Duh!

A recent survey indicated that 17 percent of Americans believe

Joan of Arc was Noah's wife. Think about that one for a moment. Another 12 percent believe that Cain and Abel were friends of Jesus. Where does one start?