Prayer is a Way of Seeing
[Note: for those who follow this, glad you found your way to this new blog site. Be patient with me as I primp and tweak. The main reason for my changing services is to allow [...]
What Prayer Isn't
I'm going to take up the advice of some of you and, invoking Janus (the Roman god of new beginnings, who was able both to look back and look forward), I'm taking a new approach [...]
Does God Speak? And, Questions from the Grab Bag
This week, I am doing a rather hasty blog entry...mostly to put out some questions. For myself, mostly - and for anyone who might like to chime in. (By email, in person, or...here). About the [...]
Lenten Disciplines
I see I've broken my weekly discipline of getting a blog entry in by my usual deadline. A very bad discipline to begin the Lenten season. So...that's my very brief topic for a very brief [...]
Why Love?
I am thinking about a question that Will, my now-nine year old, asked to me when he was about, oh, four or so: “Dad, where does love come from?” Perhaps that’s a good start for [...]
I Love You, Man
Have you ever said, “I love you” to a friend? Someone not a spouse, girlfriend or boyfriend; not someone within Cupid’s target zone for you? I myself can’t recall doing that – perhaps partly because [...]
What Are You Looking For?
First, I want to say that I have not “moved on” from what is still preoccupying my mind – and I imagine the mental space of so many of us: Haiti. As I said on [...]
Why? Or What Next?
This week's blog entry - I'm double dipping. I offer here what I am writing in our church newsletter for next month. Been another kooky week, but for us, dust is settling, even as we [...]
A Pastoral Letter
I don't have time for a blog entry this week - but thought I'd use this space simply to share the letter I wrote to the congregation.Perhaps the best question to reflect upon this week: [...]
The Big Kahuna and the Stink of Love
Very few words this week; I'm beginning a DMin program at Wesley Seminary in Washington, DC, and have once again entered this strange landscape of mental (and spiritual) exploration. A landscape that includes the trashy [...]
Fountainhead Phase: Ayn Rand Anyone?
Happy New Year to all! How great to have some down time - and I hope you and yours are enjoying some as well - and that you have had a blessed Christmas. (Excuse me...are [...]
As it had been told them….
Bah, humbug. I'll be honest: I hate preaching on Christmas Eve.Why? 'Tis the most challenging day of the year. Folk want to get to their eggnog. Or have already had a healthy dose. Folk want [...]
Seven Minutes…and Why Pay the Preacher?
Since I am not preaching this week - thanks to Jim Moyer, Martha Davidson and our music program doing the homiletical heavy lifting via our Lessons and Carols service - I thought I'd offer a [...]
God on the Job
Here’s the question for the week: do you take your faith to work? Do the values you profess on Sunday, have a bearing upon what you do on Monday – and the rest of the [...]
The Biggest Loser?
One of the comments in last Sunday’s sermon that garnered the most conversation (well, among folk I had a chance to talk with) was my reference to the popular television show The Biggest Loser. I [...]
Do You Pray, part 2…
I am yielding blog space today to my colleague in ministry, Brent Ferguson. Brent had trouble (like many of you , I'm hearing) posting a response - so I'm taking the liberty of making him [...]
Do you pray?
I really want to know. One of the edges that we seem to be treading right now - our staff, our leaders, our congregation - has to do with this question: how do modern people [...]
Cage match: Pilate vs. Jesus
What has power over you? This week, I’m back from a weeklong clergy renewal retreat in Arizona called CREDO. Although I had joked with our interns and staff that I was going to “Clergy Spa” [...]