A good friend helped me to find a post by Brian Kirk called “Lady Gaga, Lent, Teens, and Original Sin.” It is a good read, but there are a few tweaks that I might have made to his argument. In his article, Kirk shows how Lady Gaga’s latest song “Born This Way,” helps teenagers to…
R.E.S.P.E.C.T.
The world we live in today has radically changed. The people in the world have changed. And we haven’t quite figured out what that means… yet. At the risk of sounding like an old, worn out, cranky person, I can’t figure out what is wrong with kids these days. That’s at least where this post…
rights of workers
Recently, we have wrestled in various states surrounding Iowa, and now in our own state with the rights of workers. I watched the situation unfolding in Wisconsin over the last month and was appalled at how it has all turned out. The United Methodist Church has had a long history of supporting labor reforms and…
Come Out the Wilderness
As we started this journey of Lent yesterday with Matthew, we entered the place of wilderness and watched as Jesus wrestled verbally with the devil. It was a rich dialogue of temptation and power and scripture… with some magical teleportation thrown in there for good measure. But as Keith Mcilwain reminds us, the devil is…
fasting in secret, doing justice in the daylight
Last night in Disciple Bible Study, we very timely read the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew. As a class, we wrestled with the implications of such contradictory phrases: being salt and light, letting the whole world see the witness of our life – vs – praying and fasting and even almsgiving in secret. How…
Celebration of our Present
Instead of preaching this Sunday, we shared some videos about the life of our church and the process we are in. ENJOY!
what we are saved from matters – or – what if Rob Bell has a point?
I’m just a small voice, but I have a two cents to add to the pot on this whole “Rob Bell Universalism” controversy. Before his book is even out, folks are making all kinds of assumptions about what it says. And there are probably enough indicators in the youtube preview of “Love Wins” that you…
the world is my parish
Bishop Trimble recently reminded a group of young clergy that we are not appointed to congregations… we are appointed to communities. It was something I had not really considered before he made that statement… and it was a refreshing thought. In many ways, I had assumed that my ministry was both in my church and in…