I’ve been struggling in recent weeks with whether or not I have the gift for youth ministry. Or whether I just can’t figure out how to reach this particular group of kids. I spent some time talking with my mom about this recently, and came to the realization that I don’t have a “mom voice.”…
Lectionary Leanings – All Will Be Well
December 14Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11, Psalm 126 or Luke 1:47-55, I Thess. 5:16-24 , John 1:6-8, 19-28 A few summers ago in seminary, I participated in a course called “Church in the City.” We traveled around Nashville exploring many diverse neighborhoods and heard many powerful stories of how churches were impacting the communities that they lived…
coffee….
oh… and since i got up early, I made some coffee. it tastes so good, but in the long run, it’s going to tear my esophoghas in two… i just know it! I guess you just have to make choices, and this morning, I’m choosing based on my short term sanity vs. long term health.…
papers and work and delegating
I am exhausted this morning. And I really need an assistant at the church. If by July I’m still feeling these stresses, I’m going to insist that we hire someone part time. Because I have so little time to do the things that I really need to do. For example. I got up at 6:30…
Lectionary Leanings
The second installment of my articles for the Circuit Rider: December 7Isaiah 40:1-11, Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13,II Peter 3:8-15a, Mark 1:1-8Anticipation is not an emotion that we experience too often these days. We live in a “have it your way, fast” kind of culture. Anything you want in the entire world is at your fingertips through…
Wake Up!
This news story was posted yesterday on Yahoo News – “Sebastian D’Souza hears the gunfire at (shah-trapati shiv-a-ji)) Terminus from his office across the street at the Mumbai Mirror tabloid. He follows the sound through the sprawling station, slipping unseen through parked trains. When he first catches sight of the young men, he doesn’t realize…
Lectionary Leanings – Keep Awake!
My lectionary leanings for the next month or so are actually going to come from sermon starters that I wrote for the United Methodist Publishing House’s “Circuit Rider” November 30Isaiah 64:1-9, Ps. 80:1-7, 17-19, I Corinthians 1:3-9, Mark 13:24-37 Isaiah thinks that we need a dramatic wake up call. “O that you would tear open…
Advent Conspiracy
My friend Matt posted over at his blog “The Truth As Best I Know It” about the supposed war on Christmas and the Advent Consipracy. I too, fail to lament the taking of Christmas out of stores of our courthouses… when Christianity becomes too confused with the civic religion, it suffers and gets bogged down…