Category: Pastors’ Letters

I’ve always had a problem with “either/or” equations, especially when the two choices are placed in strict opposition to one another. You are either a “dog person” or a “cat …

During the week of April 12–19, 1919, the congregation of East Liberty Presbyterian Church celebrated their centennial. With the help of people like Georgina Negley, granddaughter of ELPC founding members …

J. Barrie Shepherd is a talented, retired Presbyterian minister and poet, who recently published a poem called “Remembering.” It starts out with these lines: Where I left the car keys, …

Is Christian faith all-sufficient? The surprising answer is “no.” Faith in God, revealed in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit, is certainly important—even fundamental for our lives. …

Presbyterians are part of the Reformed faith tradition. This means we are Protestant churches who trace our history to the Reformation countries (mostly Switzerland, England, Scotland, Ireland, France, and the …

Happy New Year. Now what? The start of 2019 is an opportunity to review your life and set some goals for a positive, fruitful year of existence. What are some …

Sometimes in conversations, a person will interrupt the discussion by offering a challenging word, prefaced by the phrase “Let me play the devil’s advocate.” It’s a funny phrase (Side note: …

I think both Steve Jobs and Henry Ford were wrong. There’s an apocryphal saying (wrongly) attributed to Henry Ford, in which he says “If I had asked people what they …

It’s odd that something as straightforward as forgiveness can actually be quite complicated. Saying the words “I forgive you” does not seem like a huge undertaken. But all of us …

Maybe it’s a sign of getting older, of having strong feelings of nostalgia. Maybe it’s a reaction to the breakneck pace of our internet age and Twitter-intoxicated world. For whatever …