Tag: Monmouth College
-
We are all “Cracked Pots”
Rev. Shannon Johnson Kershner was Monmouth College’s 2018 Baccalaureate Preacher. Shannon was called to be the pastor of Chicago’s iconic Fourth Presbyterian Church in March of 2014. Ever since hearing this news, I have been cheering for Shannon and celebrating her success. Very few women serve as senior pastors of churches over 5,000 members. With…
-
Living the Questions with Amy Frykholm
Amy Frykholm, author of Julian of Norwich: A Contemplative Biography; See Me Naked: Stories of Sexual Exile in American Christianity; Rapture Culture: Left Behind in Evangelical America; Christian Understandings of the Future: The Historical Trajectory and Associate Editor of the Christian Century magazine visited my campus last week and spoke to us of her call…
-
Keep Walking–A Christmas Sermon
What follows is my Christmas Convocation sermon, “Keep Walking,” to the Monmouth College community, based on Isaiah 9:2-7. If Tim Kramer, our college’s videographer, were to set his camera to film all of us walking the slick sidewalks of campus this winter, I imagine he’d get a pretty good blooper reel. A few weeks ago (when…
-
When Worship Works
Worship doesn’t always work. It doesn’t work when your student pianist can’t get through a whole hymn verse without stopping and starting three times. Or when the toddler, who accidentally bumps his head, drowns out your sermon’s climactic crescendo with his screams. Or when your congregation, who faithfully shows up Sunday morning after a long…
Teri McDowell Ott 