I am going through a large backlog of my unpublished drafts. Many are like this one from 2013: lamentations of a public matter and how I addressed (or failed to address) it. Immediately, I felt sad. Morbid curiosity led me to the mall yesterday to see the crowds at Chick-fil-A. My first observation was that the tiny parking lot next to the food court entrance … Continue reading The F-Word, Missionaries and Chick-fil-A
A memory flashed across my devices: a photo of my Zoom-Church set up in 2020, while the world was contracting due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A tour of this photo serves as a deep dive into the rich memory of that season in history. When the pandemic hit in March of 2020, I didn’t know what to do. I sucked at video editing. So I … Continue reading All Saints Day, Remembered
THIS POST stuck in the drafts folder for several years. It is from August 2021. This past month, my family and I took a long journey across the country to see family. It was a 6,500-mile odyssey in a rental RV for my first look of my parents and brother and sister-in-law since COVID-19 began. The trip revealed a lot about America, much of which … Continue reading America In Retrospect, Specifically August 2021
A Parable Imagine you’re a high school physics teacher. You go to school; you work hard to pass your exams. You get certified. You’re no Einstein, but you’re no Joe Schmo either. Yes, you had plenty of support along the way, but in the end you worked hard to earn your position. You know about physics, and you know about school. Last year, the State … Continue reading Who’s in Charge? A Church Conflict Inquiry
There’s no such thing as Christian Nationalism. What we call Christian Nationalism is a rather naked thirst for power disguised as faith. A dragon in wolves clothing. It doesn’t take much scriptural exploration to see its heretical foolishness. The Gospels describe a scene at the outset of Jesus’ public ministry in which he travels the wilderness to fast. In fasting Jesus is tempted by the … Continue reading The Charlatanry of Christian Nationalism
What’s your church kitchen like? The church kitchen at Mount Vernon is “certified”. I thought that was a bit crazy to be honest. It certainly needs to be managed to stay “certified”. Otherwise, it’s fairly standard. The refrigerator requires those wooden-wedged door-stops to keep from rolling out into the memorial garden. Lately, we’ve been eating together a lot more. It kinda began in 2024 when … Continue reading On the Church Kitchen
Ministry is a series of mundane things interrupted unexpectedly with less-than-mundane things. Sometimes the mundane and the less-than-mundane are connected. Here’s a glimpse of a Sunday of such connections. 5:15am: Alarm worked! I get to my desk, heat up the tea and review my sermon for the day. I added a story to the message, checked the other elements and made a game plan for … Continue reading A Mostly-Typical Sunday
Early Morning…Rally Day at the High School I began the day with a rally for staff and faculty of the school district. It included band, cheerleaders, Folklorico dancers. We introduced new teachers and staff and heard a moving presentation of our new district Strategic Plan. I chatted with one of the new para-educators at Centennial Elementary (I recognized her t-shirt) as well as the media … Continue reading A Monday in Ministry
Dear Mr. Rubio, While I know you have plenty of mean critics, I assure you that I write this with loving concern specifically for you. You don’t have to do what you’re currently doing. Part of being an American is having the freedom to walk away from something that is not good for you. You can do this at any time. Every time I see … Continue reading Letters to Trump: An Open Letter to Marco Rubio about Zacchaeus
I am using John Wesley’s Holy Club examen questions to examine my own life. #8- Did I give it (the Bible) time to Speak to me today? The Bible has been speaking to me, even though I’m not formally studying it like I should. The accumulated studies of the past have given me a familiarity and comfort with the scriptures, to the point that I … Continue reading Wesleyan Examen 29APR2025
