Departures
When people leave a church, it can be hard for the ones who remain. In a recent post in The Gospel Coalition, Dave Harvey offers helpful insights for people grieving over church departures. People may leave for understandable reasons. Even so, we can lose perspective. When good friends depart, our personal support network may be disrupted. The loss of a key leader, active worker, or generous giver may seem to threaten the viability of the church. For these people, we must not
Rivers of Tears
I have lost family members to gun violence—a coup d’état, assassinations, and civil war in Liberia. I have lost friends to gun violence in Philadelphia. I have wept with families of acquaintances buried due to suicide. In the past five years, our congregation in Harrisburg (Pa.) has lost eight sons, all murdered in cold blood. Gun violence is a national nightmare—erupting all across the country, experienced locally, and felt personally by many. Like Jeremiah, we cry out in gr
