Rev. Dr. Warner Bailey Devotional for the 2nd Week of Advent Dec 8, 2020 Ecclesiastes 9.1-12 Galatians 3.23-4.7 Luke 1.57-79 In November 1944 a new… Read More »CHRISTMAS AND FATE
Rev. Dr. Fritz RitschDec. 6, 2020 Isaiah 40: 1-11Mark 1: 1-8 Our first child Sara Caitlin was born in October of 1991. Barely a week… Read More »The Medium is The Message
On a recent Tuesday, a group of 15 students, ranging in age from their 20s to their 80s, were gathered around a table in St. Stephen’s Eastminster Room. They were comparing the Book of Job in the Bible to Archibald Macleish’s brilliant poem/play JB. How did Macleish’s post World War II rewrite of the biblical book that asks why God allows suffering give us insight into Job? How did they differ? The discussion was lively and insightful. At the table were a varied group–a faithful older lady who is a dedicated volunteer, a PCUSA missionary, a young man who teaches English at a high school, a middle-aged administrator on his lunch break, an older couple, one of whom is in a wheelchair, and a formerly homeless woman originally from the Bahamas. The energy is palpable.Read More »Tuesday Bible Study
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the
depth and breadth and height my soul can reach
It does not seem too great a stretch to appropriate Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s immortal lines when writing about the Scottish Hebridean Island of Iona. Her expression of love for another person reaches multi-layered dimensions existing beyond description. Some would call this a spiritual state encompassing certain places set apart as well as people set apart. Iona is such a place.Read More »Embracing the Tempest
Rules are Cruel
The most pernicious and un-Christian way that Christians use Scripture is as a rulebook. This is legalism, and it goes against the very spirit of the teachings of Jesus and of Paul, both of whom were intense critics of any use of Scripture or religious observance as a way of putting barriers between God and human beings.Read More »A Personal Journey, 4: The Blasphemy of Legalism
The Presbyterian Church “NEXT church” conference is in Dallas at the end of this month. I found last year’s first NEXT con inspiring and educational. This is the sermon I preached on my return. It was Transfiguration Sunday.
The Vision Glorious
1 Peter 1: 16-21
March 7, 2011
St. Stephen Presbyterian Church
Fort Worth, TX
Rev. Dr. Fritz Ritsch, Preacher
This past weekend I attended the “Next Church” conference in Indianapolis. I always feel l have to explain that this isn’t the “Next Church” as in, “What’s the next church I’m going to be pastor of?” I’m not going anywhere. No, it’s “Next Church” as in, “What is the next church we, as a denomination, are becoming?” The conference brought pastors, elders, and seminarians together to discuss the future of the PCUSA. It was exciting but also sobering. I’ll start with why we are asking the question in the first place.
The PCUSA and denominational Christianity in general, appear to be at a crossroads. Our authority is no longer taken for granted. Indeed, the authority of the Christian message seems to be universally questioned. Both the church’s message and the forms we use to convey that message seem quaint and outdated, or worse, oppressive and exclusive. We seem both unwilling and unable to change with the times. Are we a dinosaur? Jurassic Church, hopelessly outdated and unable to survive the speeding, earth-shattering impact of the comet of change that’s transforming the world around us?Read More »The Sermon I Preached After Last Year’s NEXT Church Conference
March 4, 2012 Rev. Fritz Ritsch, D. Min., Preacher St. Stephen Presbyterian Church Fort Worth, TX Six St. Stephen members and I dared… Read More »The Next Church and the Others–Mark 8: 31-38
By Rev. Fritz Ritsch, D. Min., Pastor, St. Stephen Presbyterian Church, Fort Worth, Texas
There was a moment at the NEXT Church Conference in Dallas that made my jaw set and my stomach clench.Read More »The Church Come of Age
Former PC(USA) moderator and prolific blogger Bruce Reyes-Chow has started a petition drive called “There is more than one version of Christianity!” His point is that there is a great deal of diversity the Christian family. Christians need to be more tolerant of one another and the media and culture need to recognize Christian diversity, too.Read More »Big Tent?
The Second “NEXT Church” Conference will be held at First Pres, Dallas, February 27-28. As the PCUSA experiences change generated both from within and… Read More »“NEXT” Church Con in Dallas Explores the Future of the PCUSA–You Should Go!
