Holiday

“Everything in our society teaches us to move away from people who don’t look like us. But the Gospel calls us to something altogether different. We are to laugh at fear, to lean into suffering, to open ourselves to the stranger. [On Christmas] we remember how JESUS put on flesh and moved into the neighborhood. God getting born in a barn reminds us that God shows up in the most forsaken corners of the earth…JESUS came from Nazareth, a town from which folks said nothing good could come. He knew suffering from the moment he entered the world as a...Read more …

I remember going to a Christmas concert on a frigid winter night. I made sure to drop my wife, Pam, off at the door. If I didn’t, she’d freeze before even making it inside. Me? I’m not so bothered by the cold. I’d find the place to park. Once inside, I joined her and we both hunkered down in the upholstered auditorium seats, our coats tucked behind us. Candles glowed in the windows up the aisles and we felt warm despite the bitter temperatures outside. The music was beautiful. The choirs sang traditional carols and the orchestra played classical melodies and...Read more …

This is Walk the Way, brought to you by Q Place, I’m Jeff Klein. I love what Q Place friend, Hugh Halter, says in his book, Flesh: Jesus had a front band. You know the drill – you to to a concert to see, say, U-2, but there’s always a band or two first to get you ready for the big act. Hands down, Jesus was the big act, but God knew He couldn’t just show up. He’d need some openers. Buzz and buildup were needed. Can you imagine what it was like waiting thousands of years for the Messiah? People...Read more …

This is Walk the Way, brought to you by Q Place, I’m Jeff Klein. This past Sunday marked the start of Advent, the official beginning  of the season that the church celebrates and uses to prepare itself for the coming of Jesus, then, and now, into a world that so desperately needs it. And I love how my church ushered it in. Our worship team decided we’d transform the small gymnasium where we gather to look like a back alley. Plastic, crumpled paper bags, old pizza boxes, magazines and beer cans littered the floor. The reality of this present world surrounded...Read more …

This is Walk The Way, brought to you by Q Place, I’m Jeff Klein. Yesterday, many of us sat around a table to celebrate Thanksgiving. Michael Hebb – an entrepreneur and activist – has made an entire career around doing so. Pointing out that eating together is a vanishing ritual in our culture, replaced by fast food, drive through windows, and eating alone, Hebb travels the world, sharing a dinner table with everyone he meets, encouraging them to do the same. He believes eating together at the table can change the world. Long before, Jesus seemed to get this, too....Read more …

A couple of years back, Panera Bread ran a compelling ad campaign that began as a list: The Mac guy and the PC guy, Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, Sons-in-law and Mothers-in-law, Introverts and Extroverts, Sarah Palin and Tina Fey, The Right and the Left, Brett Favre and Wisconsin, Red Sox Fans and Yankees Fans, The Roadrunner and the Coyote, Those who install toilet paper over and those who prefer it under… Break Bread. Pretty funny! But why? Why break bread? What can breaking bread together actually do for people on opposite sides of the fence? Tomorrow, most Americans will...Read more …