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
Continue reading →Just stumbled across this in my reading this morning, it works well with what I’m reflecting on with “confession as vulnerability,” confession is what keeps us open and subject to change. Here Chesterton says it well: “Life is not an illogicality; yet it is a trap for logicians.” The
Continue reading →This past Sunday we piled new and gently used items for homeless people in Camas into a new galvanized trashcan I picked up from the local hardware shop here in Camas. We did this as a part of our discussion on the Disciples Prayer and the petition/mission Give
Continue reading →The tag line for FOOD, inc. is “You’ll never look at your dinner the same way again,” and well, they’re right. This for some of you may be the very reason why you decide in advance to not watch it, or to not read the rest of this
Continue reading →This is the sermon on the Disciple’s Prayer from Sunday morning. This morning we step foot inside the second strand of the Disciples prayer, the ethics strand, the strand that gives us guidance on how we are to live in the day to day. We see that even
Continue reading →I came across this old Mennonite rendering of the Disciple’s Prayer and love it. Abba Father God, Bless your holy name. Let your reign come now, Let your desires be carried out. Bring your peace to birth, As in heavn, so on Earth Give us bread, daily; Free
Continue reading →At Camas Friends Church, we’ve been doing a monthly film and discussion group we’re calling “Last Sundays for the Earth.” The purpose of the event is to watch a film, or have a person come in and facilitate a discussion, around issues in sustainable living (and what we
Continue reading →I’ve been pretty open about sharing our lives online. I regularly post photos on flickr, videos on vimeo, post updates to twitter and facebook and even blog here (on this blog and our family blog “Weird Fishes”) and there about what’s going on with our family. But It’
Continue reading →This is an extended version of what I preached on Sunday morning November 1, 2009 Last week we began a new set of conversations, where we are exploring what Im referring to as, in keeping with other Quakers and Anabaptists, the Disciples prayer. This stresses the point that
Continue reading →