This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

I have thought a lot about the question in the headline as I reflect back on a life going to church.

First, I went in Portland, Oregon, where I grew up and my family attended church regularly.  Good for the family and me.

Second, I attended church in Salem, Oregon, where I and my family have lived since 1979.  Salem Alliance was – and is — our church home there.  It is a church that focuses on Christ and what he has done for us.  And, further, it avoids divisive political issues.   

Third, as my wife and I now spend our winters in the California desert, we attend Southwest Church.  It is a huge church in our area that has, as its theme, “We are a gospel-centered, multi-ethnic, inter-generational church… and we love discipleship!”

Now, there is no way to argue with that sense of mission!

To answer the question in the headline, I have come to several conclusions:

• Sunday sermons should be designed and delivered to help assure that those who attend are thankful they were in church to honor God and their relationship with Him.

• Sunday sermons should be designed and delivered to encourage those who have not yet made a decision to follow Christ to make that decision.

• Sunday sermons, especially given the large numbers of people who attend Southwest Church in La Quinta, California – all ages, all backgrounds, all ethnic derivations, all economic standing – should be designed and delivered to avoid divisive topics.  Especially politics.

One recent example for me highlights the problem with focusing on divisive topics that just happen to be part of a sermon series that hews to a particular book of the Bible.  In three weeks at this one church, the topics in order from the book in question were, (a) advice on church discipline, (b) admonitions against Christians going to court against other Christians, and (c) commitments to avoid sexual sin.

All might have been good topics for a class or seminar that persons chose to attend in the spirit of the scriptural admonition “to rightly divide the word of truth.”

But, for a Sunday sermon, not good topics.

Back to Salem Alliance Church.  I had the privilege of serving in a church leadership volunteer position there over a number of years where the topic of Sunday sermons was a frequent one for us.

We tried to adhere to what I listed above and, with emphasis, I add that we avoided politics, which, if it had been emphasized, contained more potential to divide than to unify.

I say all this as we embark today on another Easter season.  Last Sunday was “Palm Sunday,” and now we are in the midst of a week to mark Easter and, in the process, to focus on what Christ has done for us.

Which is to offer salvation to us based on His grace, not on our works.

So, have a great Easter season to celebrate Christ’s resurrection and what that means for all of us.

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Later this week, I intend to write several more blogs to highlight the reason for the Easter season.