This is my Easter sermon. Intro_ For me it was at a church I recently begun attending with my family back when I was back in Ohio when I was a kid. Our was a big, patchwork family. There are six kids on my mom’s side of my family.
Continue reading →The recent arrest of a “Christian” militia group (yea Ohio and Michigan) has made international news (just what I want my friends around the globe reading about us) and for good reason, the initial response of hearing about a group of people who think of themselves as followers of Jesus
Continue reading →Next time you find your way to a university library you should pick up the latest copy of Quaker Studies journal (Volume 14, Issue 2 March 2010). My first journal article, “Convergent Friends: The Emergence of Postmodern Quakerism,” appears there. Here’s the abstract: Postmodernism is ushering in radical change
Continue reading →He answered, I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out. (Luke 19:40) Today is Palm Sunday, the day we reflect on Jesus’ “triumphal” ride into Jerusalem. Ironically his ride isn’t really triumphant as much as it is parody; the king of Jews riding on
Continue reading →When I was hired as the pastor of Camas Friends one of the things that the elders told me was that they hoped to have unprogrammed (aka silent or open) worship quarterly. This was an attractive idea to me and I was glad they were willing to support this type
Continue reading →Today is the feast of Oscar Romero so as I think about his work today and pray for all those who are cruelly treated, those who do not have a voice of their own and those who long for God to make the world new, I am posting some of
Continue reading →Back in February, and on the dawn of Transfiguration Sunday, about 30 (?) folks piled into a Southeastern Portland home to share in a conversation being facilitated by two out of towners Eliacin Rosario-Cruz (Seattle) and Mark Van Steenwyk (Minnesota). The crowd was made up of a number of men and
Continue reading →I’ve been really enjoying the first two episodes of the Iconocast and thought I’d share the link here for those of you interested in listening in. The podcast is put together by some of the fine folks behind the Jesus Manifesto site as well as Jarrod McKenna of
Continue reading →Here is a prayer we prayed one Sunday morning after reflecting on those who have great needs in our town. God of the broken, God of the wanderer, Christ who is without shelter, Surround those in deep need among us. Surround them and help us hear their cries for help.
Continue reading →This week on the pastor’s email list there has been a really long discussion around whether it is appropriate to boycott certain businesses. It all started when a pastor sent around a forward he’d received that claimed that a certain corporation had been working with the immigration enforcement
Continue reading →This is the sermon from last week. prodigal 1 spending money or resources freely and recklessly; wastefully extravagant : prodigal habits die hard. 2 having or giving something on a lavish scale : the dessert was crunchy with brown sugar and prodigal with whipped cream. See note at profuse. This was broken
Continue reading →We decided to experiment with changing my days off, so I worked on Monday and am planning on taking Friday off. I have been taking Mondays off since I began pastoring last May. While it’s been really nice to have a free day where pressure from Sunday’s preparation
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