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
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
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”
This has been sitting in the draft folder for a while now. [Y]ou also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ [1 Peter 2:5 (NIV) Read the whole passage] We live in a skeptical age. It’s not just that people don’t believe in God. Perhaps the bigger tragedy is … Continue reading Spiritual Houses, a Reflection on 1 Peter 2:5
I have a great dad. My dad is now a great granddad, which reminds me that I have a great dad. My dad did the ‘providing for the family’ thing working hard at his unglamorous job. But I only remember a handful of times that he brought it home. When dad got off work, it was family time. That is a lesson to me. My dad was my … Continue reading Age of Discovery
One day, I’m going to work in a grocery store. When people have a need, they will ask me. If I don’t get something, they’ll tell me a second time. They may call me a pinhead the third time, but at least I’ll know what they need. I won’t be paid a lot, but I’ll be part of that neat gang of friends that check … Continue reading Ministry in the Clinical Setting also known as the Grocery Store
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
