Who goes to synod as voting delegates? What change did Synod 2023 adopt?

“I shouldn’t be here…” For the last three-plus years, this phrase has reverberated in my head more than once.

Disgruntled already about the annual hoopla surrounding the birth of the Savior, Santa really did it. This was simply outrageous.

When my mentor suggested we study the book of Deuteronomy, I thought, “Really? Deuteronomy? Isn’t that one of the books that makes people quit their Bible-in-a-year reading plans?”

Someone I care about is unemployed and looking for work. How can I best help them?

Honoring Native American heritage feels differently for me as a new immigrant at this particular time in history.

I’m a boomer who has started to use emojis. Is that a bad thing?

We cannot erase our emotions, but we can learn to lower their intensity so that they become more manageable.

We are to be God’s ambassadors of reconciliation, showing how a world so bent on murdering each other can be shown how to love each other and even to do the impossible in loving our enemies.

Even our very best words fail to capture the power, beauty, and glory of the uncreated and everlasting God.

If God loves the world (John 3:16), why are we told not to love the world (1 John 2:15)?

A good pastor is hard to find—in art, at least, if not life.

The cold hard fact is that we are all addicted to sin and every one of us struggles for sobriety from it. Repentance offers a way to be free.

This is just one example of how well-meaning Christians, all with valid reasons, all respecting Scriptural authority, can in good faith have different interpretations of the same passage.

What is cultural appropriation? Why is it wrong? How do we avoid it?

Would it be better to toss denominations into the ash heap of history? I don’t think so.

See how readers responded to recent Banner issues, articles, and columns.

My teen is always coming up with foolish ideas, and we end up arguing endlessly. Any thoughts on how to break the cycle?

Simple machines help us by following the simple rule God made for them: When you increase the distance over which force is applied, you decrease the force needed.

Am I happy with how my life took shape?

It’s a fairly common experience for a waitress to ignore me and only talk to the non-disabled person I’m dining with.

There are two ways we can read the Bible: as if it’s a mirror or as if it’s a pair of binoculars.

I can hardly imagine my becoming a pastor without having experienced the life of a parkie for the past four seasons and befriending the beautiful and complex people who live in the parks.