Scholtes-Blog

Category: Other Churchy

  • Easter is not about ME ME ME!

    Easter is not about ME ME ME!

    While doing some work on my upcoming sermons, I found a website called “My Jewish Learning,” which is designed as an encyclopedia of sorts for all things Jewish, to aid everyone from a synagogue leader looking to deepen her knowledge to a newcomer considering converting to Judaism. It has a nice article by Rabbi Ismar…

  • Rambling about the Fulfillment of Scripture

    Rambling about the Fulfillment of Scripture

    I did not preach a sermon in worship today. Today is Sunday of the Passion / Palm Sunday, which  means that the gospel reading is the entire story of the passion of Christ, from the Last Supper through his burial. This year, the passion gospel was Luke 22:14 — 23:56. Since the gospel itself takes…

  • Fourteen

    Fourteen

    The “Stations of the Cross” are a spiritual tool commonly found in Roman Catholic churches. The Stations themselves are stops on a path that one walks. The path is like a pilgrimage of sorts, telling the story of the Passion of Jesus Christ. Each Station on the path represents one part of that story, and…

  • Thirteen

    Thirteen

    When I was a child, all I ever wanted to be was an astronaut. I loved learning about outer space, especially about the planets in our solar system. (Although, I must say, I was not scandalized by Pluto’s “demotion” to dwarf planet status in 2006. Given the discoveries of other objects in the solar system at…

  • Praying Together About the Things We Can’t Talk About

    Praying Together About the Things We Can’t Talk About

    We are living in very polarizing times today. In the United States, it has become increasingly difficult to hold a conversation about a political topic with people who disagree with you. Friendships and family relationships have become frayed and painful. Family gatherings, such as Thanksgiving, have in some families become times of great anxiety and…

  • I’d Like Your Thoughts

    I’d Like Your Thoughts

    I have an idea for a blog post. It has to do with faith, but before I post it, I want to test a hypothesis I have. So I would very much like your help. Please consider taking a nine-question survey for me. All the questions are multiple-choice. It should take just two minutes of…

  • Finding Other Voices

    Finding Other Voices

    So here’s what happened. We’ll start last Thursday. Last Thursday evening, I led a Bible Study, the first in a six-session series on the book of Revelation. Afterward, I felt guilty, and I wrote a blog post about it. In that post, I shared how terrible I felt, and how much I had done wrong.…

  • Bible Study or just Arrogance?

    Bible Study or just Arrogance?

    So tonight we had our first session of the Bible Study I’m leading on the book of Revelation. And I feel horrible afterward. Why do I always have to be this way? We had a few visitors from other churches, and instead of welcoming them, I think I just simply turned them off. I found…

  • Funerals are Good

    Funerals are Good

    Day 6 of Walking and Blogging. I got 11,804 steps in so far today, and I’m about to blog. So, a successful day 6. The local funeral home is less than a half mile from my church. I generally walk there when I have a funeral. This evening, I had a viewing to attend, and…

  • Moving the Source of Darkwater

    Moving the Source of Darkwater

    What happened today was a long time coming. I have to start from the beginning. Forty-two years ago, I was baptized at Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Breakerville, a small town in the coal regions of Pennsylvania. (I’ve changed the names of both the church and the town, for reasons you’ll get to in a…