Yes: It’s about the guns. If it weren’t about the guns, people wouldn’t rush into defending the 2nd amendment mere hours after a massacre of kindergartners If it weren’t about guns, there would not be a small but loud minority pushing for guns in the hands of school teachers. If it weren’t about the guns, people wouldn’t dismiss those who have been through this before. If … Continue reading It’s About the Guns
What’s a Mediocre Preacher to Do? I am taking an online course called “Design: Creation of Artifacts in Society“. It is being shared by the University of Pennsylvania through Coursera: an online education clearinghouse. I am taking this course to help me better design worship. I am not that good of a preacher-I tend to be boring. If the Mountaineers play late, I know that … Continue reading Designing Worship: Sensing the Gaps-Coursera Lessons for the Church
Coach’s Bad Habit I played soccer growing up. It was a big part of who I was, the first thing that I was really good at. I was tall and fast and that made for some success on the field. One year, our team was really pretty good. We were competitive in every game and even knocked off the top team during the regular season. … Continue reading Getting in the Game
Kitty in window Oversees lovers at play Blissfully unfree · September cricket Sings a dusky requiem- Rests as cars roar by — That crooked tree must be balancing out the rest of the earth. For she is bent in a gnarly shape, superficially ugly, with patches of green leaves ready to die. Bending shoots of dead branches testify to the sickness within. She is innocent-no … Continue reading POETRY: Kitties, Crickets and Crooked Branches
I am at the Northeast Jurisdictional Conference (#nej12) serving on the Hospitality Team. Tuesday’s schedule was dedicated to the interviewing of Episcopal candidates. There were 8 interview teams and 19 candidates (candidates profiles can be found here [.pdf] in Tuesday’s Daily Christian Advocate). Each candidate interviewed before each interview team. In the evening, I got to sit in on one of the interview teams as … Continue reading Episcopal Questions
Vital Learning is Critical to Vital Church Leadership…or so they say. At Greenview, we have been undergoing a revitalization process. I followed a pastor that had been here ten years, so the congregation was ripe for something new. We began in January by reading Vital Signs by Dan Dick. It is a superb book that really got us thinking about who we are as a church. … Continue reading Book Review: “Holy Conversations”-Introduction
Last week, I was Ordained an Elder in Full Connection in the West Virginia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. Egalitarianism led me to this moment in my life and is an extension of my theology and faith. Women as equals in ministry is second nature to me. In high school, my home church received a clergy couple as pastors. This was southern West … Continue reading Egalitarianism and the Christian Minister
ON THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT “Candidates approved by the charge conference and seeking to become certified for licensed or ordained ministry shall: … b) complete and release required psychological reports, criminal background and credit checks.” (The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church, 2008, paragraph 311.2.b) The ordination process has served me well, over the long haul. There are issues with the process, no doubt. … Continue reading Reflections on “The Process”, as I near Ordination as an Elder in Full Connection, Part 2
STANDING AS AN LP All sort of hopes and dreams are wrapped up in Ordination: one’s hopes for the Church, the feeling of affirmation, the nerve-wracking pressure of representing God to the world, etc. One of the hopes for me was to be Ordained with my wife. It was the assuring feeling that I’m not doing this BIG thing alone, that I would have a … Continue reading Reflections on “The Process”, as I near Ordination as an Elder in Full Connection, Part 1
General Conference 2012 is approaching. Petitions are submitted; delegates are elected; travel arrangements are being made; reimbursement accounts being tapped, as we speak. One might get the illusion that it’s a big deal. I was part of the illusion. Three times in the past twelve years, I applied to be a Page or a Marshall at General Conference. Never expecting to be elected as a … Continue reading Something Happened on the Way to General Conference
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