Finishing Up

This column completes eight years of putting up on this website short essays on faith, theology, and everyday living. It began and it ends, in this form at least, as a part of the outreach ministry of First United Methodist Church, Richardson, Texas.

What I have tried to do in all of these pieces is to bring the resources of scripture, the Christian tradition, experience, and reason to bear on the understanding of our common faith and its relevance and power for living transformed lives as servants of God in the present age.

Some of the columns address topics and issues that were discussed widely at the time of their writing --- e.g., conflicts in the Holy Land, health care, church and state, abortion, the economic order, stem cell research, poverty in the midst of plenty, intra-church controversies, the environment, homosexuality, and immigration reform, to name a few. With most of these issues, we still struggle.

Other Howe About columns take the form of meditations keyed to the church year of any year --- Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost.

And still others struggle with perennial issues of faith --- e.g., evil and God’s goodness, faith and mental health, the authority of the Bible, establishing a Christian home, the meaning of salvation, liberal/conservative divisions in church and society, gifts of the Spirit, the end-time, etc. and etc.
On all of these subjects, I have written with both a theological and a pastoral perspective in mind.

I have thoroughly enjoyed creating each one of these columns/essays, and I have appreciated all of the responses I have received about them, favorable and unfavorable. It has been a privilege to offer them in Christian love as a service to my home church and to a readership that has spanned 40 states and over 40 countries abroad.

Howe About’s 200-plus contributions, including a full-length book, will still be available for downloading at this address, with the hope that they will continue to stimulate discussion about how to express the Christian message credibly and lovingly for the present day. Each is easily accessed by clicking on the links provided at the right side of this page. May the clicking continue.