Featured Meeting New Challenges Through Repetition In every generation the church faces new, as well as old, challenges. For many years, Christendom allowed a basic stability within the culture for the church to remain in tact. It was a false sense of security, human capital because people were expected to hold membership in a local church,
Blog Entries The (Real) Pursuit of Happiness Came across this today and it reminded me that true happiness is not what we’re told it is: Happy are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the LORD. Happy are those who keep his decrees, who seek him with their whole heart, who also
Blog Entries Luke 1:1-4 Storyboards: Narration as Intervention (Sermon Notes) This past Sunday we reflected on Luke 1:1-4, Luke’s introduction to his wonderful Gospel. Since many have undertaken to set down an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed on to us by those who from the beginning were
Green Quakerism and Sustainability: Camas Friends Practice A New “Plainness” I’ve posted about this already on Twitter and Facebook so excuse the repetition, but it seems like it should be here on my blog as well. Plus, I’m really pleased with our church. Camas Friends are doing some pretty cool stuff, and it’s all stuff I cannot
Featured Interventions in The Gospel of Luke Tomorrow we begin a series we’re playfully naming, “Interventions in The Gospel of Luke.” Our reflections will not only draw on the text itself, what it says, what it teaches, but it suggests that by hearing, and re-telling these stories we encounter the text in a way that transforms
Blog Entries Plane activities Plane activities Originally uploaded by C. Wess Daniels. I just checked my blog and saw that I accidentally posted this picture with no text on my site via flickr. So, here’s a little update. We just arrived home (Camas, WA) last night after being gone for almost two weeks.
Featured Off and Traveling the Quaker-World-Wide Tomorrow morning I leave for North Carolina to attend the Friends Association for Higher Education. FAHE is for all Quakers working in the field of education and so I will be attending largely as one interested in teaching Quaker theology and history. This year I am presenting with two other
Featured Lectio Divina and Acts 2:41-47 This past Sunday we finished up our discussions around Acts 2. For worship, we had a more meditative tempo. The host for Sunday’s worship led the congregation in a simple prayer, shortly after one of the women in the congregation shared about her growing concern for child trafficking in
Blog Entries Karl Barth on Acts 2:41-47 This Sunday our meeting for worship will be focusing on the last portion of Acts 2: So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added. They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
Blog Entries Baby Daniels #2 Is On the Way Emily has been feeling a little “different” these last few months and seemed to be growing a bit in the tummy so I suggested she find out what’s going on. Apparently, there’s a baby growing inside her! Who would have known? I’d like to introduce Baby Daniels
Blog Entries Are We Still A Dangerous People? (PDX Quaker gathering) My friends Peggy Parsons and Marge Abbott are giving what I might call a “dramatic presentation” of Quaker history at Multnomah Meetinghouse this Saturday. These two women are well-versed in all-things-Quaker, lively, provocative and will surely make it an enjoyable time for any who wish to attend. I plan to
The Theological Community of the Holy Spirit: Repentance as a Way of (Dis)believing This past Sunday we looked at Peter’s Sermon in Acts 2. I struggled over this text for a while. How do I preach a sermon on a sermon and keep it interesting? Actually, I’m trying to avoid using words like “preach” and “sermon” because they feel less participatory
Blog Entries Oscar Romero on The Protagonists of History I’ve been reading through excerpts of Oscar Romero’s prayers and writings and many strike me but this one really stood out to me this morning as one we need to hear today: The true protagonists of history are those who are most united with God, because with God’
Blog Entries The Community of the Holy Spirit: The Birth of a Diverse Church (Sermon) This past Sunday was Pentecost Sunday and for someone who spent his high school years in a Charismatic church, I know the day fairly well. It proved to play another significant role in my spiritual autobiography as it was also the day of my first sermon as pastor of Camas
Featured We Too Need an “I’m Sorry Day”: Concerning the Recent Abortion Murder Jarrod McKenna’s posted on the God’s Politics Blog about the “I’m Sorry Day” Australian’s celebrate every year as a remind that “there is no future without confessing and seeking to heal the pain of the genocide of Aboriginal peoples and the evils that created the stolen
Blog Entries First Sunday At Camas Friends Last Tuesday we landed at our new house in Camas Washington. I came by car with our good friend James LaCroix, and Emily and L arrived by airplane. Fortunately enough, all our things transported by ABF U-Pack It also arrived on Tuesday mostly undamaged. We spent the week unpacking, getting
Blog Entries GiL Video: Road Trip To Camas Memoir #1 http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4708818&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=FEF52D&fullscreen=1 Road Trip Memoir #1 from wess on Vimeo. I’m on the way to Camas Washington with our good friends
The Cultural (Untitled) My friend Rhett Smith asked me on twitter yesterday where he should start if he wanted to get into some of iek’s writings. There are a few different places to start because he has such a huge corpus and covers a variety of topics. For instance the different
Green GiL Video: Resistance and Simplicity: Reflections On Swimming Upstream http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4468240&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=FEF52D&fullscreen=1 Resistance and Simplicity from wess on Vimeo. In this video I discuss some of the questions I have around using
Featured Mind the Fire, Fan the Flame: A Message of Hope for Quakers I’m currently digging through my research on Freedom Friends Church and found a blog post Liz Opp wrote awhile back that got my attention. In the post Liz talks about hearing Peggy (FFC’s pastor) and Alivia (Clerk of the meeting) present on their church. She makes some useful
Church in Mission Immigration and May Day The May Marches are just about to take place and I just received an email with an image seeking to raise awareness around the complex social issues and injustices surrounding immigration in this country. There are a number of pictures by Shepard Fairey dealing with this issue of “Immigration Reform
Church in Mission Denominations and Traditions: Thoughts on Differences “To stand within a tradition does not limit the freedom of knowledge, but makes it possible.” Hans Georg Gadamer Today I spent a few hours working on my Mid-Program defense for my PhD program, I will be presenting it to my committee on May 14th. This entails laying out the
Featured GIL Video: A Few Thoughts On Forms of Worship http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4311899&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=FEF52D&fullscreen=1 Here are a few thoughts I decided to video record instead of write about given the lack of time I
Blog Entries The House Hunt and other Adventures Last Saturday we flew up to Portland Airport and picked up our rental car and traveled down to Salem Oregon. We celebrated resurrection Sunday with our friends at Freedom Friends Church. Freedom Friends is the semi-programmed meeting I am doing ethnographic research on for my fifth tutorial. It have been
Blog Entries A Good Friday Parable Brother Maynard posted this the other day and I wanted to follow suite. This is a parable of the last super written by Peter Rollins and is found is his new book due to come out in a couple weeks. It is evening, and you are gathered together with the
