Featured Intercession, Wangaari Mathai and Moses (Ex. 33) This is the message I shared with Camas Friends on October 23, 2011 Introduction Finish this statement: Intercession is… Growing up in the church I was most used to hearing about intercession in the form of prayer, intercessory prayer was kind of like an intervention for a family member but
Church in Mission When The Church Becomes a Department Store You can drive around most neighborhoods here in the suburbs and find at least some vacant buildings. Some of them are small, and if not historic, they at least have a history. While others are just enormous squares, nondescript, no personality or history at all. “throwaway” buildings might be a
The Biblical The Inevitability of Absence (Ex. 32) This is the message I gave at Camas Friends Church this past Sunday. Weve been doing a series on the book of exodus with an eye, or an ear, or both, to Gods concern about liberation and concern for the poor. A couple of weeks back I shared
Featured Discernment and Remix Yesterday, I had the pleasure of speaking at George Fox’s Chapel on my talk which was titled Tradition, Quakers and the Resurrection Community. I’ll post it here within the next day or so. In the talk I tell a little of my own story, discuss the idea of
Featured Quakers and The Resurrection Community (Acts 13:13-33) This is a snapshot of what I’ll be speaking about next Monday at George Fox University’s chapel. You Israelites, and others who fear God, listen. The God of this people Israel chose our ancestors and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt, and
Featured Fall and Winter in the Life of the Spirit The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. – Jesus (John 10:10 NRSV)I love Fall. It is a beautiful transition time from summer to winter. From a time of abundance to a time of rest, where
Blog Entries Damage & Too Much and Too Little Damage by Wendell Berry I. I have a steep wooded hillside that I wanted to be able to pasture occasionally, but it had no water supply. About halfway to the top of the slop there is a narrow bench, on which I thought I could make a small pond. I
Exodus The Ten Words of Love (Exodus 20) This is the sermon I gave at Camas Friends Church on October 2, 2011 about the ten commandments. [First I asked some questions about people’s interactions with the ten commandments and we had a good time of sharing out of that. Then I shared a number of ten commandment-styled
Discernment Practicing Discernment Together as a Church About a month ago we began a Wednesday evening meeting at Camas Friends (the Quaker meeting I pastor). The goal of these meetings are to build our friendships with each other (so we eat together before the class begins), as well as add to our being a learning community. The
Blog Entries Taking A Sabbath Rest Yesterday during worship at Camas Friends Church, Brad Tricola preached on the Exodus 16 passage about Sabbath. His message was in part about just how difficult it is to live up to the ideal of sabbath, even the Hebrews continued to gather on the day they were to take off.
The Biblical Questions and Complaints: The Wilderness School (Ex 16) This is the message I gave at Camas Friends Church on September 18, 2011. Complaints. We pick up our story shortly after were we left off last week. The Hebrews have past their entrance exam, which was proctors by prof. Moses and his assistant Aaron, and now they have been
Featured The Red Sea: From Obstacle to Opening (Exodus 14) This is the text from the message I gave at Camas Friends Church September 11, 2011. The Experience of the Experience This past week we were at the beach. Searching for rocks. Lily and Mae scooped while Emily and I carefully picked. At first this was frustrating. It felt like
Quotations John Greenleaf Whittier: The Eternal Goodness The other evening I was fortunate enough to join some of our local unprogrammed Quaker friends in a meeting for worship. I needed and really appreciated the worship in silence. It is nice to be a Quaker pastor, who can show up and worship in a space where I do
Featured Being Drawn Out: Rebel Midwives, Empires and Little Hebrew Babies (Exodus 1-2) Here is my message from August 21, 2011 (slides can be found here). _a birth story How many of you have given birth or been present at a birth before? [I told Story about L’s birth and the power (for me) of her being drawn out of the womb]
The Biblical The Res. Community (Pt. 5): The Things We Carry This is the final message I gave a few months back on the resurrection community from John 21.This week we finish our series on the Resurrection Community by turning the last part of John 21 and the dialogue between Jesus and Peter: When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said
Featured Uniformity, Religio & Solidarity (Psalm 133) This is the message I gave during our meeting for worship on Sunday August 13, 2011. _religion and Norway On July 22, 2011, a 32-year-old man drove his car into the city centre of his hometown, Oslo Norway, near a number of government buildings. He was not out to file
Blog Entries Reading the Bible for Transformation George Fox once wrote: I saw also how people read the Scriptures without a right sense of them, and without duly applying them to their own state. ( QuakerPsalms p. 13) This past week I was at a group called GodPub and in conversation we started talking about the bible, what
Blog Entries State of the Church: Camas Friends Church I just posted our 2011 “State of the Church Report” on our meeting’s blog. You can read it here: http://wp.me/pzEU4-eh
The Biblical The Company We Keep: Empathy and Reading the Bible Together (Acts 8) This is the message I gave this past Sunday. _THE B.I.B.L.E. The Bible is, for better or for worse, one of the most influential documents in the history of the Western World. We sit here together in worship this morning largely because of the Bible. Many
Featured The Res. Community Pt. 4: The Last Breakfast, or First Potluck (John 21) This is the message I gave that is a part of a longer series on the resurrection community from a few weeks back. _The last breakfast on the beach Post Easter weve been talking about the res. appearances of Jesus. We thought it would be interesting to see what
The Political GMO OMG! Jeremy Seifert’s New Sizzle Real My friend Jeremy Seifert, the guy behind the popular documentary Dive!, which I have reviewed here in the past, is beginning work on a new documentary about GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms). I am really excited about the new project and have posted it a few times in various places, but
The Biblical (Untitled) _Introduction A couple weeks back we discussed how the resurrection community is a participatory community, that is that Jesus invited his disciples to bring some of their fish and add it to the pile that he brought. The work of the church is to be actively involved in participating in
Blog Entries The Res. Community (Pt. 3): Success and The Famous Catch of John 21 This is the third part in a five-part series looking at the final resurrection appearances of Jesus in the book of John. The text this morning is the first part of John 21. _intro Theres a lot of silliness in this passage. It would be easy to write a
Blog Entries Lord, Lord, Open Unto Me: Howard Thurman (Prayer) I was recently given a prayer book from a friend in our meeting called Prayers from the Heart by Richard Foster. ((Books in this post use an affiliate code to a local, independent bookstore close to where I live in Portland.)) It’s a lovely collection of prayers, and the
Blog Entries A Prayer of Interdependence God of the body of Christ, organs and limbs, feet and hands, the weak and the strong, the broken and the suffering, we recognize our dependence on you, we see how you knit us together as one. We confess our own independence, our own individualism and self-centeredness. We too often
