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St. Stephen News

Why I Give To St. Stephen

Minute for Mission
November 2011
Written by Betty Arvin and Mark Thielman

I’ve been asked to talk to you about why you should consider pledging to St. Stephen. I don’t know why you should support this particular church. (Pause to see Fritz get a bit pale here.) What I mean by that is that church and faith are personal and individually centered. I can only tell you why I support St. Stephen.Read More »Why I Give To St. Stephen

A Board Member Says Good-bye

Yesterday was my last official meeting as a board member of the Presbyterian Night Shelter. Executive Director Toby Owen presented me with a beautiful plaque that is a photo montage of the clients PNS serves—homeless men and women, children from the Women and Children’s Unit, even a couple of staff members. Board President Steve McLauren asked me to close the meeting with prayer. I found myself choking up a bit. I thanked God that during the turmoil of the last six years, the PNS Board has remained focused on its purpose: serving the needs of the homeless in our community. I thanked God for an incredible board, forged by fire; and for an amazing staff, after years of uncertainty.

Read More »A Board Member Says Good-bye

System of a Down: What Sandusky’s Crimes Tell us about Dysfunctional Organizations

News comes today that the Penn State Board of Trustees has fired Head Coach Joe Paterno and college president Graham Spanier. This comes atop shocking reports of child sexual abuse by former Penn State defensive line coach Jerry Sandusky. A Pennsylvania Grand Jury has returned charges that Sandusky abused eight boys, starting as young as 8 years old, associated with a charity he started. At least two other Penn State officials are leaving/forced out of their jobs already, and no doubt more will come. Today police are determining who needs to be held accountable for a violent student uprising over the firing of Coach Paterno.

While it’s a shame that Paterno’s career has ended this way, these students need to recognize that this isn’t a steroid scandal. This is child sex abuse. It is shocking and inexcusable. Sandusky needs to be punished to the full extent of the law. Those boys are damaged for life. There is nothing the legal system can do that will give them back what they lost.

And like it or not, both Penn State in general, and Joe Pa in particular,  are accountable for it.

A graduate assistant informed Paterno of an egregious incident in 2002. Paterno referred him to college administrators. According to some accounts, Joe Pa became agitated and said, effectively, “don’t tell me about this, tell somebody else.”

This is where the Nittany Lions’ head coach went wrong.Read More »System of a Down: What Sandusky’s Crimes Tell us about Dysfunctional Organizations

Jesus, Plumber of our Souls

I live in a wonderful historic neighborhood inFort Worth, Fairmount, and one of its distinctions was that it had its own plumber, Gene Forman. Gene was a large, affable man in his early sixties who had created a niche for himself in our neighborhood. And we kept him and his erstwhile partner, Petey, plenty busy.

In fact, I thought us Ritsches needed to keep him on retainer. With all our failing pipes, new fixtures and water heaters, and impossible clogs, Gene and I got to be pretty good friends.

Gene and I talked a lot about faith. He had been involved in the founding of a church years ago. He’d been fond of the pastor and consequently been hands-on in both building the church and leading it for awhile. But for some reason–I gathered because of inevitable church politics–he’d gotten discouraged and fallen away. He may have been disappointed in the pastor. I’m not sure. It was years ago, and he hadn’t attended since.

Read More »Jesus, Plumber of our Souls