Officiating funerals is never an easy gig for us clergy types. And when the funeral is for someone we’ve never met? Well that certainly doesn’t make the job any easier. I’ll never forget the memorial service I was leading a few years ago for a young woman who had died tragically and unexpectedly. I didn’t […]
Category Archives: Articles
My 6 Favorite Reads of 2019
The year’s nearly over, and in retrospect one of my many failures during 2019 has been keeping this humble little website updated with fresh content. (Four posts in the span of twelve months isn’t exactly prolific.) But I refuse to let my negligence kill off one of my favorite annual traditions: sharing the books I […]
Room for Love
Have you ever noticed the trees for sale at your local nursery, most of which aren’t yet tall enough to reach your shoulder? If so, you know that their roots are compactly housed within small pots of soil not much bigger around than a basketball. As long as the trees are of such diminutive stature, […]
Rethinking Biblical Womanhood
Imagine a woman who rules over an entire nation. From her position of authority she carries out her duties as a spiritual leader, an interpersonal mediator, and a military strategist. Her proficient exercise of power has earned her the respect of the entire nation. The commanders who take orders from her trust in her discernment […]
Why We (Probably) Won’t Change
It’s too bad the Celebrity Pastor Megachurch movement (imaginary NYSE symbol: CPM) isn’t a publicly traded company, because I’d sure love to see the plummeting red arrow depicting its stock price over the last few months. The latest hit to CPM’s value came a few days ago as James MacDonald was removed from his post […]
My 6 Favorite Reads of 2018
Everyone has a different way of reflecting on their year. Goals met, weight lost, places visited, friends made—all that’s well and good. But I prefer to do my reflecting by looking back on what I’ve read. That probably makes me a bit of a nerd. But I gave up on caring about that long ago. […]
Fear Not, Wanderer
That Sunday morning before I headed out the door to make my walk to the church building, I told my wife goodbye and half-jokingly warned her that it might be my last sermon. I knew the message that day would be controversial, and I was preparing her (and myself) for the fallout. It was a […]
Caravans and the Communal Conscience
They’re coming. It sounds like the tagline to a new action-horror movie. But no, it’s just another week in American political discourse. As thousands of soldiers are deployed to the southern border, the collective imagination of our country is gripped by the prospect of a coming invasion. The so-called “caravan” making its way through Mexico […]
These Fruits Are Made for Pickin’
“I am the vine. You are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.” These beloved words of Jesus have shaped the spiritual formation of countless people who, over the ages, have sought to walk in the way of Christ. They’re inspirational. They’re endearing. They beckon […]
Listen Up!
A plot of farmland is its own little universe. Driving past one corn field after another on some vast stretch of Midwestern highway, you may not recognize this fact. But each field boasts an identity as complex as it is unique. Its location, its contours, its soil quality, its surrounding environment, its climate, its ability […]
