Snapshots of the Life-Giving God. Week 2: God Our Constant Companion Snapshots capture unique moments of our lives that often suggest something about who we are, what and who we care about, where we find joy, and how we make meaning. In a similar way, scripture...
Snapshots of the Life-Giving God. Week 1: God the River. Snapshots capture unique moments of our lives that often suggest something about who we are, what and who we care about, where we find joy, and how we make meaning. In a similar way, scripture provides...
I think one of the most important words Jesus ever spoke was the word “today.” Give us today our daily bread. So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today. Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. Zacchaeus, hurry and come...
5 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them. He said: 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be...
If you were to ask someone from the 1st or 2nd c. CE what they thought the church needed to be talking about, I’m pretty sure they would say “the resurrection.” It’s front and center in Paul’s letters. It is there in the church’s first creeds...
In what follows, I’m essentially banging the same “The Great Opt Out” drum as I did a couple weeks ago, though at a slightly different tempo. I think we should immediately discard any version of the question, “what do we do to get folks back to...
The last few years have taken something from all of us. Some of us are bereaved and going through the stages of grief. But all of us are at some stage of mourning. It took my wife, the mental health counselor, to tell me that...
Yes, people are opting out of “church.” No surprise there. But what are they actually opting out of? And what does this say about what matters, what doesn’t, and what we might more intentionally move toward? Earlier this month, Dr. Scott Thumma, director of the Hartford...
In recent weeks, my colleagues and I have been writing about what conversations pastors and their congregations need to be having right now. High on that list for me is what it means to pursue shared leadership between clergy and laity. Exodus 18 offers a powerful...