I came across this today while I was doing some back reading from this weekend’s newspaper. It struck me as really insightful: After the baseball steroid scandal and the disappointing news that Tigers a cheetah, as the New York Post headline put it, its time to accept
Continue reading →Came across this today while reading Jarrod McKenna’s post on climate change over at the sojo blog. The poem is really intense and has that prophetic edge we aren’t real comfortable with but I think it’s worth watching and considering. His message also resonates wtih Rev. Billy’
Continue reading →This past Friday I gave a bit of a cry-for-help and have been feeling under a lot of pressure lately given my schooling, job, and the recent (beautiful) events in our lives. So what better time to take a retreat and do nothing?! This past weekend our church has scheduled
Continue reading →With the new baby having arrived, working on a final paper for my methods course this quarter, having been sick for a week, signing for the title of our new house, plus all the regular things we do this past couple weeks have been, to say the least, chaotic. While
Continue reading →As most of you know by now, thanks (or no thanks) to my facebook and twitter, we’ve had our baby. In keeping with the trend of announcing big life transitions here I wanted to let you all know that my wife Emily gave birth to our daughter this past
Continue reading →[This is a tutorial on software I use for writing and organization.] When I started pastoring I created a DEVONthink database for all things ministry oriented ((See my other posts on DTP here and here). I personally use a handful of databases regularly to help me keep things organized: academics,
Continue reading →In my reading of the Disciple’s Prayer (the anabaptist/Quaker name for the Lord’s Prayer), we have to make sure that we dont limit what forgiveness includes ((See part 3, part 2, and part 1)). Our (Western) tendency is to think of forgiveness in terms of personal
Continue reading →One of the things my favorite (fake) newscaster Stephan Colbert says on a regular bias is that “Major media has a well-known liberal bias.” And this is definitely something many people believe. This perspective has cropped up again recently all over the web, and yes on The Colbert Report has
Continue reading →Freedom Friends Church in Salem Oregon is currently an independent meeting that has recently written their own Faith and Practice. A number of Friends, Monthly Meetings and Yearly Meetings, have been interested in reading about this unique meeting and some of the practices they espouse. I have done a decent
Continue reading →While I was researching for a recent sermon I came across some great quotes on poverty from 18th Century Quakers. One thing I loved was that the section on plainness and living an unfettered life is right next to the section about caring for the poor. These two things, how
Continue reading →I recently subscribed to the new magazine Generate, which I highly recommend for all of you in church ministry and thinking about alternative, ’emerging’ ways of ministry. It is a great magazine (first one just came out this fall). I read through the whole thing in an evening I enjoyed
Continue reading →My first six months of youth ministry were a bear. The church I served in had three kinds coming to the youth group when I arrived, one was the pastors son and the other two were the daughters of the previous youth leader. But building a youth group from
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