Six Months Quaker Preacher

A collection of 68 posts

Featured

Being A “Released” Minister

I recently went through and changed most of my online profiles, email signatures, and even our bulletin for Sunday morning it from “pastor” to “released minister” as that language seems to fit where I am at better. So now, at least on paper, that’s the language I use to

Featured

There is No Time for Weeping (Jeremiah 8)

I thought I would post what I would have said, if I would have preached the other day. (Given that please forgive the very unpolished nature of this piece). The love of a Parent is powerful. For instance, the other night L came running into our room balling. Now typically,

The Cultural

Interfaith Clergy Letter to the Editor in Clark County

(This is a letter a group of us from Clark County wrote in response to some of the controversy surrounding September 11th this past week. We submitted it to our local papers which did not pick it up so I thought I’d post it here.) This year, a small

Blog Entries

Camas Friends State of the Church Report

As I mentioned awhile back we have been working on our State of the Church report for the year. Well now it is posted on the Camas Friends website. When you get a second we hope you’ll take a look.

Featured

Unscheduled Time

Over the last week I’ve had a number of appointments cancel on me or just not show up. It’s only weird because it has happened with the last four meetings in a row and it is something that usually doesn’t happen. I keep wondering, along with the

Convergent Friends

Quaker Youth Pilgrimage Stops by Camas

This past weekend 29 youth and 3 adult leaders who have been traveling on a month long spiritual pilgrimage through the Pacific Northwest took a (planned) detour through Camas Washington and spent a few days with those of us at Camas Friends. They all slept and ate in our meeting

Featured

The Testimony of Enough (Matthew 6:19-34)

Editorial note: This week we discussed over email the question “What comes to mind for you when you think of plainness (or simplicity)?” We had a ton of responses from people on our church’s email group. All the responses were thoughtful and helpful. Because there was such a great

Featured

Composting Quakerism: A Podcast Of Quaker Ministers from the NW

Last fall a few of us (younger) Quaker ministers from the Northwest Yearly Meeting got together to start work on a podcast. After a little deliberation we decided to call it Composting Quakerism (Facebook page), bringing together two of my very favorite things. Compost is rife with theological allusion, and

Blog Entries

Being Dad

Just the other day I said to my wife, Emily, “I really like being a dad.” I will tell our oldest daughter L that from time to time as well. I find that there are some events that take place, some moments along the journey of the day that really

Featured

The Testimony of Truthfulness (Matt. 5:33-37)

Text from my sermon June 13, 2010. This morning we begin our summer long discussion on Quaker testimonies with the testimony of truthfulness,  or what has more typically been called the testimony of truth-telling, honesty, integrity, against oath-taking, etc. Irregardless of what we call it, listening to, learning, and living

Featured

The Convergence of Quakerism – Ephesians 2:11ff

The text from my message given to Camas Friends Church June 6, 2010 Personal Histories In the last couple weeks, I have been reflecting a lot on my own history, my own personal narratives that have shaped my life. With having recently gone home this probably doesn’t come as

The Theological

Lady Wisdom, Feminine Divine and Proverbs 8

Last week we discussed Proverbs 8, here are some of my thoughts on the passage. Let’s be honest here, the (divine feminine) language in this passage can be little shocking to American Christianity, which is so often dominated by men. Who is wisdom? Well, whoever she is, she’s

Featured

Sometimes the Long Days Are Really Good

A lot of people want to know what a pastor does with her or his time throughout the day. I have one person who mentioned that they figured I had a lot of free time, because “pastor’s don’t do much more than prepare sermons right?” Right? Well not

The Pastorate

Doing Film Events in the Church

One idea we’ve been doing at our church (Camas Friends) we started last fall, it’s called “Last Sunday’s for the Earth.” The idea was to create a forum where topics could be discussed using films as a starting point for those conversations. We have shown a number

Featured

Movements and Common Language of the Spirit – Acts 2

Last week I wrote a little about our experience of visiting another Quaker meeting in Portland last Sunday. During that time of open worship I thought some about Acts 2 and Pentecost. It was obvious that there is much that these two communities have in common and can learn from

Featured

Where do we see ourselves in each other? Camas Friends Visit Multnomah Quakers

This Sunday morning Camas Friends locked the doors to our  meetinghouse and took a field trip into Portland to worship with Multnomah Monthly Meeting, an unprogrammed (as in silent worship) that  is a part of North Pacific Yearly Meeting. There was a pretty good group  of us who drove down,

Featured

Building Networks of Support and Eldering

There’s a lot to say about this past weekend retreat on Convergent Friends and New Monasticism and it’s going to take me some time to unpack all the various experiences, ideas and thoughts that came out of it. However, one thing is for sure it was a learning

Featured

Mary’s Flowering Tree (John 12)

I preached a while back on John 12:1-8 which reads: Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus,  whom he had raised from the dead. 2There they gave a dinner  for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with

Blog Entries

Spirit Rising: Young Quakers Are Speaking

Two weeks ago I was in Indiana for the book release party for the book I helped get published: Spirit Rising: Young Quaker Voices. I’ve written about Spirit Rising and the Quaker Youth Book Project over the last couple years. I was one of ten young Quaker editors on

Blog Entries

Too Many Dave’s

And now for something out of the ordinary. Since we have small children in the house, we get our fair share of reading great children literature daily. I think I love reading this stuff as much as they love being read too! One of my favorites is the obvious Dr.

Blog Entries

New Monastics and Convergent Friends Retreat Outline

Martin Kelley and I will be leading a weekend retreat at Pendle Hill in just a couple weeks (May 14-16) and I’m starting to get really excited about it! Martin and I have been collaborating a lot together over the past few months in preparation for this weekend and

Practices

The Resurrection and Quaker Communion

Awhile back a reader commented on a post I wrote on Open Worship: A new Friend shared with me that she had started reading about the other branches of Quakerism. She concluded with these words. Going to a Quaker Meeting with no unprogrammed worship would be like a Episcopalian going

Practices

Digital Detox: Why Not?

Adbusters is encouraging a digital detox this week and I think it’s a fantastic idea. So why not give it a shot? I’m going to be at a pastor’s retreat with our yearly meeting, and am then flying out to Indiana to participate in the release the

Six Months Quaker Preacher

The 6 Rules for Allies

This was sent to me by a friend today and I have to share it. Dr. Omi Osun Joni L. Jones gives 6 rules for allies (cross race/gender/sexuality/nationality/religion etc) in her keynote speech given 2/19/10 at a luncheon sponsored by Abriendo Brecha Vll Conference

The Theological

The Cross of Repentance: Thoughts on Forgiveness and Confession

For the Third Month of the 2010 Friends’ Calendar this quote sits above the dates: The life of the cross is a life of the cross of repentance…Most of those who inform us today that they “do not believe in sin” are really saying that they cannot believe in