My household recently added a person to it. My brother in law moved in for a bit as he prepares to start graduate school. It is our chance to help him out and besides, we love having him over! It has been interesting to watch as we navigate around one another. We are running the…
The Body of Christ
we are the church
Feedback and Preferences
I’ve been in my current congregation for about six months now and I know that we have some tinkering to do with worship. On the one hand, we have a solid traditional service that features our choir and the organ and liturgy and is right up my own personal alley and comfort zone. We also…
Spiritually Blind
I mentioned earlier this week a youth group conversation about Mary Magdalene and demon possession. There are so many different ways of understanding what demon possession might have been about and what Mary’s demons might have been. I’ve had demons explained away and described lots of different ways. Illness. Mental disorders and illness. Cultural misunderstandings…
Unimagineable…
I think in some ways, I’m still in shock. Or exhausted. or both. At 2:45 on Monday afternoon, we announced that we had raised $2,009,907 for Imagine No Malaria as the Iowa Annual Conference. I had spent my lunch break sitting on the floor of the treasurer’s office counting the dollars that districts had raised…
Winter is Coming
As an introvert, I dont often make small talk with fellow passengers on a flight. Now that you can use a kindle during taxi and takeoff, my nose is often in a book or playing a game on my phone. But today, even my game of “caveman story” couldn’t save me from a conversation with…
The Side of the Road
I had an experience last week that deeply shook me. My dad asked me to come help him move farm equipment as he moved from one set of fields to another for harvest. In essence, I was a chauffeur and would follow the tractor or combine and then take him back to the farm to…
We're Afraid to Ask
We don’t like to talk about money. Pastors hate to preach on it. Finance committees only do it because they have to. We keep our records quiet and avoid tough conversations about budgets. And when the time comes for mission work or important projects, we pass around the white buckets and pray someone gets inspired…
More than we can ASK or IMAGINE
On the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington, a lot of people are talking about dreams today. Dreams for racial equality. Dreams for unity. Dreams for access to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Dreams for our children. Dreams for reconciliation. Dreams for a future with hope and freedom, love and peace. As…