Worship is essential for human flourishing. For one thing, we are all worshipping something all the time. The idolatries that fester, even in a well-disciplined Christian heart, when we are confronted with nonstop news of terror and rumors, can only really be put to rest when we gather with others to “set forth God’s praise, hear his Holy Word, and

We have decisions to make, and horizons to shape, which leaders at other levels cannot.

We need to redirect social energy from anxiety and panic to love and preparation. This crisis presents an extraordinary opportunity to fortify small communities of love and care for our neighbors. That will only happen if we lead in a way that reduces fear, increases faith, and reorients all of us from self-protection to serving others.

Above all we should say, “Do not be afraid.”

They play that role through both symbolic action — what they say, how they say it, even how they hold themselves and respond to others — and through decision-making on behalf of others.

We should not say to fearful people, “You’re overreacting.”

It is absolutely true that people immersed in media of any kind react to news and rumors in unhelpful ways. But meeting anxiety with an accusation of overreacting is not likely to help. The biggest problem in most of the United States as I write is that many people, and many institutions, a

What is your only hope in life and death?

That I am not my own,

but belong with body and soul,

both in life and in death,

to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ.

He has fully paid for all my sins

with his precious blood,

and has set me free

from all the power of the devil.

He also preserves me in such a way

that without the will of my heavenly Father

not a hair

We may see the revival of genuine Christian faith and discipleship, and the renewal of the church of Jesus Christ in the United States.

The Roman world was full of plagues. Epidemics regularly decimated cities and regions. Though ancient people did not understand the germ theory of disease, they knew enough to flee cities, if they had the means to d

How will we move the horizons of possibility, not just for those we directly lead, but for our whole culture, in the time of coronavirus?

More than ever in my lifetime, the direction of the culture around us, and the future of all those we love and care for, is quite literally in our hands. May God direct the decisions we make, and the way we commun