I began itinerating when I graduated from high school in 1993. Since then… 1 year at Bluefield College as a commuter. 3 years at King College as a resident. 1 year with my parents as an unemployed college graduate. 2 years in Webster Groves, MO in the US-2 program. 1 year in Cambridge, UK in the Time for God program 8 months back living with my … Continue reading The Regretful Side of Itineracy
TEXT Isaiah 55:1-13 Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in … Continue reading Bible Leads: Isaiah 55:1-13
TEXT Luke 13:31-35 At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, ‘Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.’ He said to them, ‘Go and tell that fox for me, “Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must … Continue reading Bible Leads: Luke 13:31-35
TEXT Isaiah 58:1-12 Shout out, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins. Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practised righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous … Continue reading Bible Leads: Isaiah 58:1-12 (Ash Wednesday)
TEXT Luke 2:41-52 Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Assuming that he was in the group of travelers, … Continue reading Bible Leads: Luke 2:41-52
Christianity is an untidy faith. It’s full of grace and therefore full of the breaking of rules and the loving of people despite their breaking of rules. Our guy–God in the flesh, the Savior of all creation–gets his ass whipped, his hands and feet nailed to a freaking tree trunk and his gut sliced open like a Christmas turkey*. His cousin had his head cut off*. … Continue reading Messy Religion
TEXT Luke 1:39-55 In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the … Continue reading Bible Leads: Luke 1:39-55
This week I: welcomed two new members into the congregation, commemorated 20 saints, joined 45 others in a really great Harvest Party, learned about my top 5 leadership themes (Connectedness, Strategic, Empathy, Intellection, Responsibility), learned a lot about industrial motors on my first Take Your Pastor to Work visit, contemplated the earthiness of the Holy Spirit, studied Jesus’ series of dinners with the Pharisees in … Continue reading This Week in Ministry
Around the corner from our house, in the part of town that still farms, there is a farm. We drive up the hill next to it on our way home from preschool. Right now there are big homemade signs all around the property: STRAWBERRIES. Our family knows it as a marionberry farm too, where in August we can get a bucket of marionberries fresh off … Continue reading Marionberries and Congregational Development Mumbo Jumbo in the United Methodist Church (a working title)
Here is my struggle: I feel God’s calling in my life. I feel a great sense of responsibility to it. Being responsible to my calling is being responsible and faithful to God. It’s that serious for me. I know others, not exclusive to clergy, have a similar view. But, under an episcopal system such as United Methodism, my calling is subject to the system of itineracy, whereby … Continue reading Itineracy and God’s Calling in Your Life
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