Author: Gordon Govier

A pro quarterback better be able to throw a pass. A cardiologist must be able to interpret an EKG. These skills are essentials of their trades. Pastoral ministry also has fundamentals. But in today’s world, it’s hard to stay focused on the pastoral essentials. We met with four pastors in Madison, Wisconsin, to explore the pastoral essentials and the distractions that pull us away from our core calling…

I asked a group of pastors this question: Why are so many Americans walking away from organized religion, and what can be done to reverse the trend? Read more of this story.

Twenty seven years ago today I took a walk around Lake Monona, along with about 30 other people including John Kyle, who was then Missions Director of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. It was called The Walk for Hidden Peoples. The goal was to develop momentum around the idea of reaching all of the peoples of the world with the gospel message by the year 2,000 and fulfilling The Great Commission.

Madison is the perfect location for a C.S. Lewis conference, given Lewis’s intellectual approach to the Christian faith. The members of the C.S. Lewis Society of Madison seem to feel that way. The society is sponsoring a conference this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at the Pyle Center on the University of Wisconsin Campus.The theme of the conference is The Ten Books That Most Influenced C.S. Lewis. Speakers are coming from as far away as the University of Otago in New Zealand, New York University, and Houston Baptist University. I am particularly looking forward to hearing HBU professor Louis Markos, who…

On Nov. 4, the Rev. John Clark plans to get a few things off his chest, possibly breaking the law in the process. Clark, pastor of Evangel Life Center in Madison, says he’ll preach a no-holds-barred sermon two days before the presidential election that will give parishioners a clear biblical road map for evaluating candidates. He’s not revealing what he plans to say, but he promises it will cross into territory the Internal Revenue Service says a church should avoid if it wants to keep its tax-exempt status.

COLUMBUS — Elizabeth A. Larson, MD, is a Catholic physician who will bring her beliefs into her work in Columbus. Dr. Larson will be opening her own independent practice in family medicine with a focus in obstetrics in Columbus starting on October 15. Read more of this story.

Fifty years ago Thursday, the fourth child from a family of Italian sharecroppers convened a epochal meeting of Roman Catholic Church leaders designed to “open the windows” of the nearly 2,000-year-old institution and let some of the modern world’s “fresh air” inside. Pope John XXIII’s Second Vatican Council, now remembered as “Vatican II,” began Oct. 11, 1962, with pomp and ceremony. It concluded more than three years later under Pope Paul VI with a transformed church, a church still struggling to digest – and in some cases accept – the changes that the conclave approved.

Three days a week, UW-Madison senior Billy Burnside attends anatomy class in an auditorium at Agriculture Hall. Thursday nights, he’s often back in the same room praying and singing alongside dozens of classmates as a student leader with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

Hard life lessons arrived early for Hee-Soo Jung, the new bishop for the Wisconsin Conference of the United Methodist Church. His parents kicked him out of the family home in his native South Korea as a teenager. His offense was not poor grades or drug use or gang activity. Jung fell in with a crowd of Korean Methodists and boldly embraced Christianity

Stephan Bauman, the president of World Relief, has many memories of Madison. As a University of Wisconsin student he spent four years in college here and then worked in finance for two years after graduation. He also remembers the orange carpet that used to grace the floor of the sanctuary at Madison Gospel Tabernacle, now City Church, at 4909 E. Buckeye Road. “We were married on that carpet,” he said, as he spoke at the church Sunday morning to kick off this week’s missions conference. “We kneeled in prayer on that carpet. And we received our vision and calling on…