We’re Not Here to Have Fun
05. March 2024
My mother-in-law, Nancy Hutmire, was known for her humor. People who met her just once or who knew her well frequently reminded us. Typically it was ...
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The In-Your-Face Abortion Rhetoric
10. January 2024
Once it was common to see the bumper sticker, “Abortion is not health care.” But over time, pro-abortion forces have turned the tables on ...
This Is Your Wake-Up Call
22. November 2023
When you are on a business trip, harried by transfers from planes to trains to automobiles, you try to get the best sleep you can in a strange bed in ...
Happy Big Birthday, RPCNA
18. September 2023
It’s a question every believer has considered if they’ve lived long enough to ponder the next generation: How can we know that the faith will be ...
Pros and Cons of an Efficient Synod
26. July 2023
It’s dangerous to daydream at Synod. If you miss a sentence here or there, you can lose track of the flow of discussion or even be thinking of the ...
The Opposite of Connected
22. May 2023
Just after the caveman days of the cell phone, when few people owned them and they resembled small bricks, I was given a new kind of phone to beta ...
Those Precious, Irreplaceable Walls
13. March 2023
For those who came to worship in Jerusalem, even the walls were special. The temple building was beloved. What made the place special was the presence ...
Still Standing for a Lost Cause
16. January 2023
Just three miles off the interstate was a town that time forgot. It looked like a place I might have walked in my childhood. I was returning from the ...
Forgetting Elijah
11. November 2022
When you have an Elisha with you, it’s easier to forget Elijah. Perhaps that’s an odd thought to cross one’s mind when reading the Minutes of ...
Not Checking the Boxes
12. September 2022
I see some of my neighbors on social media more than I see them in person. That’s not entirely an incriminating statement, as we’ve all been more ...
Time for a Pew Exchange
18. July 2022
In Feb. 2020 I booked flights for Europe with expectancy. I had been given the privilege of addressing the Irish RP Church synod and the Scottish RP ...
How Much Does a Lie Cost?
09. May 2022
Whether the narrative is George Orwell’s 1984 or Vladimir Putin’s Russia, the proverb reads the same: Lying is hard work. Think about the vast ...
Good for You
01. March 2022
Reformed Presbyterians live longer. They live better. The RPCNA pension board knows this. They learned long ago that they could not calculate pension ...
Because You Don’t Ask
11. January 2022
My youngest brother is building a house in South Carolina for his family and our father to live in. Under normal conditions, they would already be ...
‘A Mari Usque Ad Mare’
10. November 2021
The RP Church in Canada was the Witness cover story in Nov. 1988. There had been just two RP congregations in Canada in the decades prior to 1980, ...
Not Enjoying Your Youth?
08. September 2021
On Aug. 13, one teenage girl’s album surpassed another teenage girl’s album atop Ireland’s pop music charts. While that won’t register a blip ...
Postlude to a Pandemic
19. July 2021
Incomparable. On the heels of a global pandemic, with some restrictions still in place and yet with the option of videoconference participation, this ...
Support Your Local Shepherd
14. May 2021
If a pastor or church leader makes the national news, it’s usually not good news. But most pastors are not like those we read about in the national ...
Grasp History Before You Are History
05. March 2021
If you’re around long enough, people assume you’ve always been there, like the woodwork. That’s true for me and the Reformed Presbyterian ...
One Sheep Matters
08. January 2021
Author Margaret Atwood said, “A word plus a word plus a word is power.” Seldom has that been demonstrated more prominently than with last year’s ...