Blog Entries Being Dad Just the other day I said to my wife, Emily, “I really like being a dad.” I will tell our oldest daughter L that from time to time as well. I find that there are some events that take place, some moments along the journey of the day that really
Featured The Testimony of Truthfulness (Matt. 5:33-37) Text from my sermon June 13, 2010. This morning we begin our summer long discussion on Quaker testimonies with the testimony of truthfulness, or what has more typically been called the testimony of truth-telling, honesty, integrity, against oath-taking, etc. Irregardless of what we call it, listening to, learning, and living
Blog Entries Iconoclast: Interview with Wes Howard-Brook Here is a really great interview from the Iconoclast this week which looks at the difference between a theology of creation and a theology of empire. The person they interview is Wes Howard-Brook whose commentary on John “Becoming Children of God” is really good (from what I’ve read so
Featured The Convergence of Quakerism – Ephesians 2:11ff The text from my message given to Camas Friends Church June 6, 2010 Personal Histories In the last couple weeks, I have been reflecting a lot on my own history, my own personal narratives that have shaped my life. With having recently gone home this probably doesnt come as
Featured Lady Wisdom as Mid-Wife (Proverbs 8) While I was at Pendle Hill a couple weeks back I mentioned there was a lot of talk about meeting houses closing, there was a lot of talk about death, some literal death, some the death of our meetings and with it a (big) piece of our own stories. But
The Cultural The Wounding of Creation This morning someone in our meeting requested prayer for the oil spill and during the time of prayer the image of the oil spill came back to me in a powerful way. I envisioned the hole where the spill gushes out as a seeping wound. Creation is deeply wounded, and
The Theological Lady Wisdom, Feminine Divine and Proverbs 8 Last week we discussed Proverbs 8, here are some of my thoughts on the passage. Lets be honest here, the (divine feminine) language in this passage can be little shocking to American Christianity, which is so often dominated by men. Who is wisdom? Well, whoever she is, shes
Featured Sometimes the Long Days Are Really Good A lot of people want to know what a pastor does with her or his time throughout the day. I have one person who mentioned that they figured I had a lot of free time, because “pastor’s don’t do much more than prepare sermons right?” Right? Well not
The Pastorate Doing Film Events in the Church One idea we’ve been doing at our church (Camas Friends) we started last fall, it’s called “Last Sunday’s for the Earth.” The idea was to create a forum where topics could be discussed using films as a starting point for those conversations. We have shown a number
Featured Movements and Common Language of the Spirit – Acts 2 Last week I wrote a little about our experience of visiting another Quaker meeting in Portland last Sunday. During that time of open worship I thought some about Acts 2 and Pentecost. It was obvious that there is much that these two communities have in common and can learn from
The Theological Reenforcing Totalitarian Power Through Masculine Language I came across this quote today while working on my sermon for Sunday: “We have tended to use particular power models for God that image divine power as like that of a monarchical ruler, or a military general who crushes all who oppose him. The model of power assumed here
The Theological The Spirit Skips, God Dances During worship at Multnomah Meeting on Sunday I kept thinking about the fact that it was Pentecost Sunday and reflecting on the Holy Spirit. One thought, given the context of worship, was that although there were many language represented in Acts 2, the Spirit was the one language all could
Featured Where do we see ourselves in each other? Camas Friends Visit Multnomah Quakers This Sunday morning Camas Friends locked the doors to our meetinghouse and took a field trip into Portland to worship with Multnomah Monthly Meeting, an unprogrammed (as in silent worship) that is a part of North Pacific Yearly Meeting. There was a pretty good group of us who drove down,
Blog Entries Friends Association for Higher Education Coming Up I am going to make this plug for my friends at Friends Association for Higher Education coming this summer. I would be there if I wasn’t already all traveled out. This note is geared towards young Friends who are in higher education (students, scholars, teachers, etc.) I can’t
Featured Building Networks of Support and Eldering There’s a lot to say about this past weekend retreat on Convergent Friends and New Monasticism and it’s going to take me some time to unpack all the various experiences, ideas and thoughts that came out of it. However, one thing is for sure it was a learning
Featured Mary’s Flowering Tree (John 12) I preached a while back on John 12:1-8 which reads: Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with
Blog Entries Spirit Rising: Young Quakers Are Speaking Two weeks ago I was in Indiana for the book release party for the book I helped get published: Spirit Rising: Young Quaker Voices. I’ve written about Spirit Rising and the Quaker Youth Book Project over the last couple years. I was one of ten young Quaker editors on
Blog Entries Too Many Dave’s And now for something out of the ordinary. Since we have small children in the house, we get our fair share of reading great children literature daily. I think I love reading this stuff as much as they love being read too! One of my favorites is the obvious Dr.
Blog Entries New Monastics and Convergent Friends Retreat Outline Martin Kelley and I will be leading a weekend retreat at Pendle Hill in just a couple weeks (May 14-16) and I’m starting to get really excited about it! Martin and I have been collaborating a lot together over the past few months in preparation for this weekend and
Practices The Resurrection and Quaker Communion Awhile back a reader commented on a post I wrote on Open Worship: A new Friend shared with me that she had started reading about the other branches of Quakerism. She concluded with these words. Going to a Quaker Meeting with no unprogrammed worship would be like a Episcopalian going
Practices Digital Detox: Why Not? Adbusters is encouraging a digital detox this week and I think it’s a fantastic idea. So why not give it a shot? I’m going to be at a pastor’s retreat with our yearly meeting, and am then flying out to Indiana to participate in the release the
Green Community Supported Agriculture in Southwest Washington As we try to find ways to eat more locally grown, organic produce, it’s always nice to know what are our available (and reasonable) options. Community supported agriculture is one of the ways we can support local farmers through purchasing a “share” from the farmer for the growing season.
Six Months Quaker Preacher The 6 Rules for Allies This was sent to me by a friend today and I have to share it. Dr. Omi Osun Joni L. Jones gives 6 rules for allies (cross race/gender/sexuality/nationality/religion etc) in her keynote speech given 2/19/10 at a luncheon sponsored by Abriendo Brecha Vll Conference
Featured A New “Convergent” Mapping Project hits the Web Martin Kelley isn’t the only one really excited about the new Quakermaps.com project from Micah Bales and Jon Watts. While there are other quaker maps out there this is by far the coolest (IMO) because it is fully DIY, looks great, and is simple to use. As Martin
The Theological The Cross of Repentance: Thoughts on Forgiveness and Confession For the Third Month of the 2010 Friends’ Calendar this quote sits above the dates: The life of the cross is a life of the cross of repentance…Most of those who inform us today that they “do not believe in sin” are really saying that they cannot believe in
