A Family Outing to the Apple Orchard: The Ideal Versus the Real

In a sermon, Stewart Ruch said:

In family life and in church life, there's always a huge gap between the ideal and the real. For example, every autumn ...

Jewish 'Shiva' Practice Helps Loved Ones Grieve

After witnessing firsthand the devastating effects of civil war, oppressive regimes, and natural disasters, Palmer Chichen has observed that the Hebrew ...

The Positive or Negative Influence of Friendships and Small Groups

An article from Wired Magazine explored why AA has been able to help millions of people recover from an alcohol addiction. The article begins by stating, ...

Author Wendell Berry on the Perils of Individualism

Novelist, essayist, and farmer Wendell Berry has a unique image for the perils of individualism. As he was walking with his friend Wes Jackson, they observed ...

Man Creates a Front Yard Patio to "Fish for People"

Steve Bankes had a remarkably simple idea for reaching out to his neighbors: he decided to put a patio in his front yard. A Chicago Tribune article showed ...

Max Lucado Describes the Power of Practicing Hospitality

In Outlive Your Life, Max Lucado writes:

Long before the church had pulpits and baptisteries, she had kitchens and dinner tables. Even a casual reading ...

We All Need Others to Help Us Succeed

In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell tells the strange story of Christopher Langan, a genius with a staggering IQ of 195. (For some perspective, Einstein's ...

Death by Loneliness

God said from the beginning: "It is not good for man to be alone." Data collected from 148 studies, involving more than 300,000 people, conducted ...

No More Secrets

Pastor and author John Ortberg writes of the power of no-secret friendships:

One of the most important moments of my spiritual life was when I sat down ...

Looking Behind the Veil of Ordinariness

In his book Practice Resurrection, Eugene Peterson tells the story of a woman named Judith, an artist in textiles. He writes:

Judith had an alcoholic husband ...