Tom Ehrich
COMMENTARY: Isolated in America
By Tom Ehrich — April 23, 2013
(RNS) Few of us go to the extremes of building bombs or carrying assault rifles into schools. But the acid of isolation is still there, eating away at our social fabric.
COMMENTARY: How to respond to a marathon massacre
By Tom Ehrich — April 16, 2013
(RNS) People filled with hatred and guided by nihilism will always find a way to strike. Our best defense is what I saw in Boston: first-responders rushing toward danger, soldiers in uniform pitching in, strangers joining hands to rush victims to hospitals.
COMMENTARY: Change or die
By Tom Ehrich — April 9, 2013
(RNS) Many church leaders continue to believe that reinvention is a optional choice as they control the pace of change and shape its outcomes. Those attitudes are delusional. The reality is: reinvent or die.
COMMENTARY: R-E-S-P-E-C-T for our gay and lesbian friends
By Tom Ehrich — April 2, 2013
(RNS) By any sniff test or common-sense test, gay unions are no more or less likely to succeed and to be things of beauty. The larger issue, it seems to me, is public respect. And respect comes from being worthy of respect.
COMMENTARY: The real message of Easter
By Tom Ehrich — March 26, 2013
(RNS) In Christianity's passage through Holy Week and Easter Day, a moment of truth will arrive. Some will get it, and it will be profoundly good news. Others still won't get it.
COMMENTARY: Honest questions about the Argentine pope
By Tom Ehrich — March 19, 2013
(RNS) The Catholic hierarchy calls it "defamation'' to raise questions about Pope Francis' role in Argentina's "Dirty War.'' But as any penitent knows, a desire to move forward must be accompanied by candor about the past.
COMMENTARY: ISO leaders who can act like grown-ups
By Tom Ehrich — March 12, 2013
(RNS) I just spent a wonderful and encouraging weekend with a church leadership team from Reisterstown, Md. I came away filled with hope for this congregation and with admiration for their clergy and lay leaders. I wish our weak and tiresome political leaders in Washington and state capitals could visit this church in northern Baltimore […]
COMMENTARY: On the inside looking out
By Tom Ehrich — March 5, 2013
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (RNS) We did a focus group here, part of a local church's strategic planning process. Question: if you stood on the edge of your church's property and looked outward, rather than the usual inward, what would you see?
COMMENTARY: Sorry to burst your bubble
By Tom Ehrich — February 26, 2013
(RNS) The bubble I see bursting is establishment Christianity in America. It is bursting ever-so-slowly, even as millions of people still find life, meaning, safety and structure inside their bubbles. But one failing congregation at a time, the surface of shimmering shape is being breached.
COMMENTARY: Gospel lessons from ‘Downton Abbey’
By Tom Ehrich — February 19, 2013
(RNS) Monday morning's New York Times had two articles about the season finale of ``Downton Abbey,'' and even though I was behind on previous episodes, I couldn't stop myself from reading them. Finding out how the story ends, however, doesn't take away its meaning or mystery.
COMMENTARY: Pope Benedict XVI’s missing mea culpa
By Tom Ehrich — February 12, 2013
How will Pope Benedict XVI be remembered? Hard to say. My guess: as a placeholder. I hope the next pope does what Jesus did: hearing the beggar's cries and, against his disciples' wishes, inviting the beggar closer and then healing him.
COMMENTARY: The key to entrepreneurial success
By Tom Ehrich — February 5, 2013
(RNS) Keeping these three elements in balance -– dream + freedom + structure -- is daunting. Three personalities must collaborate, and those personalities don't necessarily play well together.
COMMENTARY: Going over to the other side
By Tom Ehrich — January 22, 2013
RNS) I think we scared ourselves in recent years with unbridled intolerance and insane castigation of the other. The politics of exploiting fear and stoking anti-other rage was a sobering reminder of evil days we don't want to revisit.
COMMENTARY: Emerging from the wilderness
By Tom Ehrich — January 15, 2013
(RNS) Wise leaders spend time in the wilderness. Some choose a sojourn in the desert; most are driven there when their leadership fails. In the desert, beyond their cocoon of comfort and success, they see more about themselves. By Tom Ehrich.
COMMENTARY: Conflict Resolution 101
By Tom Ehrich — January 8, 2013
(RNS) The dysfunction of Congress is just a highly public instance of a typical conflict scenario. I recently compiled some basics of church conflict. See if you agree with me that this playbook applies broadly. By Tom Ehrich.
