by Guy Sayles | Sep 16, 2021 | Uncategorized
When I was in elementary school, I attended meetings of the John Birch Society. I can’t remember how it happened that I was, on several evenings, in a room full of adults who watched 8mm movies and filmstrips, listened to recordings, and reported on books and articles...
by Guy Sayles | Aug 5, 2021 | Uncategorized
I’m grateful and a little surprised to be alive. Since being diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma in January of 2014, I’ve lived, in Raymond Carver’s words, “longer than I or anyone expected. Pure gravy.” Despite the many things cancer exacts from me, the pain and fatigue...
by Guy Sayles | Jul 28, 2021 | Uncategorized
Here’s a link to a podcast conversation I had with Mark Ramsey, Executive Director of the Ministry Collaborative/Macedonian Ministry Foundation. It was great to talk with Mark about some of the realities churches face as we move into whatever post-pandemic (and...
by Guy Sayles | Jun 8, 2021 | Uncategorized
This post focuses on the life and ministry of congregations. The regathering of our churches for worship and other ministries has been a source of relief, a reason for gratitude, and a cause for celebration. During a long season of necessary isolation from one...
by Guy Sayles | May 15, 2021 | Uncategorized
I lay down in the early afternoon of a sunny and cool Chicago Saturday. Anita and I were with our son, Eliot, and his fiancé, Tatyana. Later that day, the four of us would join several of Eliot’s and Tatyana’s friends for a relaxed informal dinner party at the home of...
by Guy Sayles | Apr 28, 2021 | Uncategorized
Photo by Eugenio Mazzone on Unsplash How do we tell the story of the last year or so? One way is to focus on a series of disruptions in public health, justice, education, economics, and politics. They were earthquakes that shook our foundational confidence, and the...
by Guy Sayles | Apr 22, 2021 | Uncategorized
Rodin It—the deaths, other losses, and griefs of the pandemic, racial polarization, economic devastation, political division, and “Christian” nationalism—has been and is hard, really hard. We probably won’t know how difficult things have been until later, when we can...
by Guy Sayles | Apr 3, 2021 | Uncategorized
Dead, forsaken Jesus. Eerie silence from heaven to the grave. Smug Empire. Self-satisfied religious Establishment. Horrified, hiding, denying, and betraying men break their vows to follow. Trembling, tenacious women stay true through the end. In God’s great...
by Guy Sayles | Feb 25, 2021 | Uncategorized
My ways of observing Lent changed significantly in 2014. Early in that year, I was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma. Treatment (infusions/injections, steroids, and a daily chemo capsule) began on Ash Wednesday. Following that afternoon’s initial treatment, I went to...
by Guy Sayles | Feb 1, 2021 | Uncategorized
It’s not enough to say that “leaders should be servants,” because all of us serve someone or something, even if it’s only ourselves. As the well-known Bob Dylan lyric puts it: Indeed you’re gonna have to serve somebodyWell, it may be the devil or it may be the...
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