My Wake-Up Call Suicide. This is the deep, dark, truthful mirror the LGBT community is holding up to the church. LGBT young adults who are rejected by their families are 8.4 times more likely to attempt suicide than their LGBT counterparts who are accepted (see CDC). The church is the family of God. This is the crux of the issue. It’s time for the church … Continue reading The United Methodist Church, Shame and LGBT Suicide
Leading worship has become one humiliation after another. From trying to avoid critical people to trying to remember everyone’s name to remembering all the things you forgot to trying to get kids to think I’m cool (didn’t I fail at that enough in high school) to bearing one’s soul again as the clock shouts “Too Long” to realizing you messed up the bulletin to making … Continue reading Saturday Night, 12 hours From the Pulpit
This year, I’m utilizing the 7 I AMs to navigate Lent. I needed something different and thought that they carried the plot lines of Lent well. Jesus faces more and more antagonism as the I AMs progress. The final I AM (I am the Vine) occurs on Maundy Thursday. Today I was exploring “I am the Gate of the Sheep” together with “I am the … Continue reading Who’s the Gatekeeper?
Church, it is the truth that sets us free. O how I wish you were free. You are not free until the truth about Crude MCHM is known. You are not free until the CDC’s 1ppm designation is properly vetted. You are not free until the shower doesn’t burn. You are not free until governmental officials stop blaming the flu for 100s of visits to … Continue reading A Just Take on the #WVWaterCrisis
Go and learn what this means: I desire mercy, not sacrifice. Humanity still has a long way to go to learn Jesus’ lesson. As the church is an entity of humans, so too does the church have a lot to learn about mercy. What if mercy were at the heart of the Christian church’s witness (instead of say holiness, family values or even salvation)? Perhaps … Continue reading The Merciful Church
The Mountain Vista Moment of 2013…A Son is Born In the run-up to the due date, I was, admittedly, hoping for another daughter. A. has been such a delight and I was nervous about having a boy. Since we waited to find out the gender of our second-born, I was calm but uncertain. Wow, was I wrong. What a delightful and charming little guy we … Continue reading A Mountainous 2013
I want my internet time to be more valuable. Right now I consume news and information, make snide anonymous comments and brood at what pops up on my Facebook feed. So one of my resolutions is to do the internet more in line with what I believe and hope to be. Step one is the ending of Facebook. I’m not trying to be cynical, but … Continue reading A More Valuable Internet
Christmas is like chaff. There is this great life-giving gem that is the birth of a Savior, who will save all of Creation. We’ve taken this gem and wrapped it in good-intentioned but meaningless stuff. While I love a good present, I am more-and-more bothered by the lack of serenity in the world. What a sublimely magnificent place (follow NASA on Twitter to see). What … Continue reading Matthew 3: The Threshing Floor of Advent
Last night was our budget meeting. We talked about our giving, wondered what we’re going to do for falling short on apportionments and bemoaned not having enough. A conversation arose about tithing. The older generation tithed as a ‘duty’. Others expressed how tithing gets rewarded: with further wealth or at least security. I’m a slower thinker, but I make up for it by being thorough (I … Continue reading Tithing Isn’t Christian
Joan Chittister’s well-being is at the mercy of her community. She has a commitment to God, codified in her Church’s discipline that marries her fate to that of her town. It is group salvation. As she told Religion and Ethics Newsweekly “Benedictines take to this day a vow of stability.What does that mean? It means we’re in Erie for life. We go down with this … Continue reading Itinerancy Means Never Having to Say “I’m There for You”
