Chuck DeGroat

When I started my first “official” pastoral role in the late 1990’s, I immediately hung a painting of Rembrandt’s Return of the Prodigal Son on my main office wall. The same painting still greets me each day, reminding me that…

My friends who are skeptics are cynical about Christianity these days. From our intramural fights to our political collusion on both sides, it all looks very un-Jesus-like. My skeptical friends from back in Chicago, Orlando and San Francisco, in particular…

by Chuck De Groat I’d written a piece for The Twelve some time ago and a friend dropped a text shortly after saying: “Hey, I saw that blog you wrote. Who are ‘the 12’? And what does it mean that…

by Chuck DeGroat Pardon the length of this piece, but we really need to talk. It’s become inevitable that I’ll get a call or email once or twice a month asking to consult with a church on an LGBTQ dialogue.…

By Chuck DeGroat Have I told you about the ‘lost’ chapter in my 2014 book Toughest People to Love? The book was originally nine chapters, but the publisher didn’t think my audience for the book would be ready to deal…

by Chuck DeGroat My vocation is to be love.                     St. Thérèse of Lisieux Therese of Lisieux I grew up in a very conservative Reformed tradition that tended in this direction: “putting on the mind of Christ” was like checking the…

by Chuck DeGroat "What kind of cult is that?” I heard her say, whispering to her friend. I was eating with some friends in a San Francisco restaurant after the Ash Wednesday service. The ashes which had been imposed on…

by Chuck DeGroat To everything there is a season says the writer of Ecclesiastes. For control freaks like me, the wisdom writer is a fly in the ointment. There is a perennial pattern, a dying-and-rising pattern which mirrors the seasons,…

by Chuck DeGroat “How in the world do I do Thanksgiving this year?” my friend asks, with tears in her eyes. Can you relate? No matter the election result a week ago, family conversations were sure to be tense. After…

by Chuck DeGroat It’s the very first question God asks after Adam and Eve’s fall from grace. They are hiding, as we all do. But God makes an incarnational move. God moves toward them, searches them out, and when God…