This summer, my church began a series exploring the work of the Holy Spirit in the book of Acts. One Sunday, I asked them to begin imagining what could happen in our community and in our church if we truly let the Holy Spirit guide us and transform us. Here are their responses: We would be…
The Body of Christ
we are the church
self-awareness, faith, repentance and the Lord's Supper
In the past two weeks, I have had a number of conversations with colleagues and family about the Lord’s Table… not necessarily about who is welcome, but about what MAKES that person welcome. My friends in the LCMS church have been discussing what kind of understanding of faith is required for a first communion experience.…
selling the good silver
Our church hosted a rummage sale as a part of our city-wide garage sales this weekend. We invited congregation members to bring us their items, we sorted and priced them and the church kept the proceeds. About 8 people put in a bunch of work and over two days we made almost $600… not too…
home #gc2012
The processing of what exactly happened these past two weeks will take time. My brain is still too full and jumbled to even begin to dig deep. But in response to some initial thoughts by the chair of our Iowa delegation, I started to think about some things that I am bringing home: 1) a…
digging deep into Plan UMC #gc2012
I admit… I may not have done my due diligence in digging out the details of Plan UMC. Not that as a reserve delegate I got to vote on it. Not that we had enough time to absorb it. Not that there was enough time and attention given during plenary to truly perfect it. But…
what you may not realize about the loss of guaranteed appointment #gc2012
Tonight, my heart was stilled from its racing on the guaranteed appointment issue. I have felt the both/and of a desire for a clear, mission process for appointments AND the deep desire to protect my brothers and sisters who might unfairly be discriminated against in the process where homophobia, sexism, and racism still exist. I…
Shake It Out… #gc2012
I’m not even sure there are words to describe the last 24 hours. My roommate and re-acquainted friend from our youth days, Jessica Ireland, was hit by a truck in an intersection last night. She came out on the other side sore, scraped up, with deep scrapes on her foot that will take a while…
when the storms of life are raging #gc2012
Our General Conference has been full of metaphors of water. Storms, wind, rain, water, shoreline, sails, rope, salt, you name it – we’ve shared the image. And it has been extraordinarily powerful when those symbols have captured the moments we have experienced: healing, encouragement, etc. But that metaphor is also difficult when you feel like…