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In Jerusalem a quarter of a century ago, I heard the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin mis-identify Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as the three monolithic faiths. He meant, of course, the three monotheistic faiths. From a distance, they may look monolithic but Charles Cohen, University of Wisconsin Emeritus Professor of American Institutions, says they are far from monolithic. Cohen, who directed the former Lubar Institute for the Study of Abrahamic Religions at the University of Wisconsin from 2005-2016, discussed what he called the “Braided Histories” of the three traditions in a February 5 lecture at Upper House. The lecture…

If you look up the word “neighbor” in a dictionary, you’ll find definitions like: “a person living near or next door to the speaker or person referred to,” or “one living or located near another.” Those are not the definitions that Jesus was thinking of when He told the story of the good Samaritan or the good “neighbor.”  In the book of Luke, Ch. 10, Jesus provides us with a very clear picture of who a neighbor is and most importantly, what a neighbor does.

On a hot summer evening two and a half years ago my daughter, Charis, and I met some of our Madison neighbors whom we never had met before. We were walking in a community prayer march on the southside initiated by Mt. Zion Baptist Church. We prayed at Penn Park, the South Madison bus transfer station, Goodman South Library and the Boys and Girls Club. The neighborhood prayer march was an effort to walk the streets, take back the streets, and to pray that God would bring hope and healing to our city and bring an end to the unprecedented…

Adrian Miller, a James Beard Award-winning author, will speak at two events celebrating Black food culture at Upper House on the University of Wisconsin campus on Wednesday, February 12. Madison365 is the media partner of the events. Local nonprofit organization Selfless Ambition is also a partner on producing the event. “Adrian Miller is a really interesting, kind of fascinating guy. He kind of lives in two worlds,” said Daniel Johsnson, director of technology and campus ministry engagement at Upper House. Those two worlds include the academic — Miller is a researcher in the history of food in the United States,…

MADISON, Wis. — If you were to Google the name “Roger Olsen” you would turn up two or three entries, one of them noting he was pastor of Grace Church in New Glarus and the other announcing he was speaking at another church. If all you had to go on was Google, you could be forgiven for thinking Olsen wasn’t much of a character. You could be forgiven, but you would be wrong. Roger, who died of cancer Thursday morning at age 74, was one of the best-loved pastors in Southern Wisconsin.

My first congregation was in Queens, New York. The church was small and I had an office in our home, next door to the church. This arrangement worked really well until kids arrived and began to invade my sanctuary. Kids were not the only ones to invade. I remember a week in the first year or two of ministry there, where I was studying the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10). The point of that parable is to answer the question “Who is my neighbor?” It is interesting that the religious insiders did not do anything about the man…

MADISON, Wis. (WMTV)– During his visit to Madison on Tuesday, Vice President Mike Pence gave a shout out to a local private school for their work with choice students. Pence was in Wisconsin’s capital city in part to voice his support for private school vouchers. Wisconsin was the first state to have a private school voucher program.

BARABOO (WKOW) — Governor Tony Evers is paying special recognition to a Baraboo pastor, who’s made it his mission to help his community. Rev. Dave Mowers has led the charge to find a new homeless shelter for his community after the only one in the area closed in 2018. “I felt like it was something that I could do that my faith compelled me to do,” Mowers told 27 News. Mowers says 70 percent of Wisconsin’s homeless population lives in rural areas, so the Sauk County community has stepped up to help him create a brand-new non-profit to tackle homelessness.

Blackhawk Church in Middleton has canceled its sixth annual Chinese New Year event amid growing concerns over a respiratory virus that originated in Wuhan, China, and may have sickened dozens in the U.S. The event celebrating the Chinese New Year is put on by the Blackhawk Chinese Ministry, a congregation of Chinese-speaking people under the umbrella of Blackhawk Church. Charles Huang, the Chinese ministry’s pastor, said the event was canceled as a “precautionary action” because several members of the congregation often travel back and forth to China, where authorities say the virus has killed at least 26 people and sickened…

What is something we can do together to better serve our schools?  This was a question at the center of the first School+Church Affinity Group back in September of 2019.  The answer that came out of this meeting was something that seemed like a simple food donation drive, but in reality is something unique and powerful because of the collaboration around the event. Collaboration for this specific event comes through six different churches who are conducting their own food collections.  Some churches are coming up with fun ways to get people to give such as trying to match the weight…