Author: Gordon Govier

When was the last time you felt stressed out by Easter? So much Easter shopping to do, so many Easter cards to write, so many Easter gatherings to attend. Not to mention the endless stream of Easter commercials on television and online, the nearly unavoidable Easter-themed movies and all those tacky Easter sweaters that you’re forced to wear every spring. And don’t forget the travails of setting up the annual Easter tree and stringing Easter lights on your house.

The congregation of Bethesda Church at 3245 E. Washington Avenue has changed its name to reflect its location, in the Carpenter Ridgeway Neighborhood.The non-denominational charismatic church has been a fixture on Madison’s east side for more than 65 years and at one point considered a move to the suburbs.

Franklin Graham’s national tour of state capitols started in Des Moines on January 5, 2016. A crowd of 2,500 braved the 28 degree temperatures.Madison should be a lot warmer when the evangelist visits on June 15th for a rally on the steps of the capitol building. About 160 pastors and volunteers gathered at the Monona Terrace Convention Center on Tuesday, March 15th, to learn details of the rally and receive bundles of promotional information.

Religion reporting, as you no doubt know, is under even more stress than the news outfits that have been dumping the specialty in recent years. So those who attended the Reporting on Religion Conference this week showed not only an idealism about the Godbeat; they also showed courage and determination. About 200 people – students, journalists, religious leaders and speakers including myself – converged on Madison, Wisc., for a broad variety of topics.

A dreary Sunday afternoon was made brighter for some Madison residents as city officials worked to mitigate unpaid citations. During the “Unpaid Ticket Resolution Day,” people with past-due fees for parking, traffic and municipal ordinance violations received help to make the payments more manageable through actions such as a payment plan, reduced fines or community service.

The Madison Christian Giving fund is supporting the Madison Area Lutheran Council (MALC) Jail Ministry in 2016. The Jail Ministry, a ministry of  presence in the Dane County Jail, serves the spiritual needs of the men and women who are incarcerated, their families and communities. Sixty to eighty percent of the inmates have substance abuse issues while another 20% have mental health challenges.  The Jail Ministry employs two chaplains who function as the pastors of the nearly 800 men and women incarcerated in the jail each day.

If you’re like me, you cringe when you hear that Hollywood is making a Bible movie. What could possibly go wrong? As we all know by now, plenty. So you can imagine the challenge I faced when I was first approached about adapting an Anne Rice novel into a movie about what Jesus’ life might have been like during the years in which the Bible is silent. I was scared about the prospect but also fascinated-you see even though I was born and raised in the Midwest (go Badgers!).

About 100 Madison pastors and business leaders gathered for breakfast at The Upper|House on Thursday, March 3, 2016, to consider lessons from the Bible on how to succeed in the work world.As a follow-up to a similar meeting last November attendees were challenged with lessons from the life of the biblical Joseph, whose career path from shepherd to second-in-charge for the whole country of Egypt included periods of slavery and time in prison.

The Pew Research Center has ranked all 50 states in four categories of religious observance, and Wisconsin is near the bottom. In fact, outside of five New England states, Wisconsin is the least religious state in the country (tied with Washington and Alaska).

The day I received my cancer diagnosis was harrowing. But what followed—learning that the only possible remedy was a risky bone marrow transplant—was even more distressing. Months after the transplant was completed, I learned from a medical blog that I had become a chimera.