A couple of weeks ago, I headed on a whirlwhind roadtrip to Kansas with my parents and my little brother. DJ has just accepted an engineering position way down there, so we went south to check things out. It has been quite a while since I have been able to spend that much time with…
Setting the Table: The Plate
Two weeks ago, I was honored to be asked to plan worship for a gathering of clergy in Des Moines. A friend, Rev. Sean McRoberts planned the service with me and we had everything arranged and ready to go. I just had to make sure to arrive early enough in the morning that I could…
tea and danish
I’ve blogged before about how church visitation makes my skin crawl. It gets me all weirded out for no good reason at all. It is one of two places that my “introverted” side really shines through – the other being the sheer exhaustion that comes over me when I finally get back home after a…
upside down and inside out
Today, my brain stopped working. I was standing at the graveside for a funeral going over the so familiar liturgy and every minute or two, I just flubbed up my words. The epitome of my exhaustion came when we got to the Lord’s Prayer and I forgot a line. But because it was at the…
pause button
I know, its been a while since I posted last. I have five posts lined up in the queue waiting to go, but I haven’t had time to work on them. The next installment of the “Postmodern Church and the Farmlands of Iowa” is what is holding everything up. One book needs to be read…
The Prodigal Steward
This morning’s parable from the gospel of Luke is one of the toughest pieces of scripture in the whole Bible. Preachers all over the country groan when this passage comes up in our three year cycle of readings. It is hard to figure out just what on earth Jesus is talking about. We have the…
Baby Showers?
This week’s Friday Five from RevGals almost has me down in the dumps. You see, my husband and I are undecided about whether or not to have kids. Or rather, we are each decided, just in different directions. And it seems like EVERYONE I know is having a baby or has just had a baby…
What “Little House on the Prairie” Leaves Out…
As a child, I absolutely adored the “Little House” books. I fawned over the pages and the stories of Laura Ingalls and imagined her life growing up in the midwest in the late 1800’s. They were full of rich detail and you could put yourself into that little sod house or the cabin in the…