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
Continue reading →This is the text to the message I gave on July 3, 2011. _intro: (dis)membership I was reading in a magazine called the Christian Century the other day and they recently put out an issue that deals with issues related to church membership. The title of the main article
Continue reading →I ran across this prayer from Quaker Henry T. Hodgkin (1877-1933) in the most recent Friends Journal issue on Pendle Hill: Firm when all round me is in flux and seething Strong when the knees are quivering and fail, Beat of my heart’s beat, energy of breathing, Over my
Continue reading →My friend Vail Palmer recently recommended to me to read Isaac Pennington’s book of letters. While I was at George Fox University this week for a conference on discernment and leadership I took the chance to visit the Quaker collection there and borrow the Pennington collection. This is the
Continue reading →This was my prepared message for worship last Sunday. It is the second in a series looking at what it means to be the church in relationship to the final resurrection appearances of Jesus in the Gospel of John. _profiles of Thomas the Seeker I dont know about you
Continue reading →This was my prepared message for worship last Sunday. It is the first in a series looking at what it means to be the church in relationship to the final resurrection appearances of Jesus in the Gospel of John. _behind locked doors What is the first thing we can learn
Continue reading →Jake Bouma asked on twitter the other day: “Friends: Suggestions for short (100-200pgs), pithy books by deceased theologians?” Good question. I’ve been rolling this around a little while. Here are a few that come to mind. There are more of course, and I recognize some of the limitations of
Continue reading →Came across this quote today by one of my favorite theologians and it sums up in a really nice way some of what I talked about on Easter morning: “That Jesus died by crucifixion in first-century Palestine is as well established as any fact in his disputed life history. That
Continue reading →This is the message I gave on Easter morning. This morning we celebrate and remember Jesus raising from the dead. It is not uncommon on Easter Sunday for those in the church to focus in on the fact of the Resurrection. For some, this is the perfect Sunday to bring
Continue reading →Saw this today and thought it was awesome (ht: GOOD). This art protest is from the liberate tate group. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4-vGbsBLKM&feature=player_embedded&w=572&h=497] YouTube – Human Cost – Tate Britain Performance, charcoal and sunflower oil.
Continue reading →I’m enjoying preparing for worship this coming Easter Sunday. What a great day to celebrate and reflect on. I came across this quote from William Stringfellow (from Sojourners in 1976) and love it. It made me think, who is it that we think was raised to life that Sunday
Continue reading →A week or so ago the Oregonian published an article about poverty in our neck of the woods. The article profiles the “subtle shifts” of poverty taking place in Clark County, the county of which our meeting is a part. The city of Vancouver has worked to push poverty out
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