Recently, Barberton Evangelical Friends Church in Barberton, Ohio – the first church I ever worked in – celebrated their 75th anniversary. As a token of my own love and appreciation for this community and their investment in me, I wanted to share some of my fond memories and role this community played in my early […]
Category Archives: The Pastorate
Memory of Love: Practicing Pregnant Absence
“You are witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.” Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, […]
Are You Still Here? Thoughts on Leave-Taking
After telling a friend of mine that my family and I would be leaving the NW in a few months for a job change, she offered solid wisdom I have hung onto: “Do your best to pay attention to everything that is happening around, the emotions, the reactions, the people who reach out, those who […]
Convers(at)ions in Community: On Creating Space for Dialogue Around the Sermon
This is a third post in a series of reflections on the nature of dialogue and transformation, or “convers(at)ion” as I am referring to it as for a little playfulness (see a and b). These are some ideas of how we try to inhabit some of the ideas of conversations/conversions within our faith community specifically around […]
Writing the Ending Is Always Hard
One of the things I struggle with the most are endings. Whether it is writing endings, envisioning the ending of a project, or saying goodbye. I struggle with exit strategies. I have no problem getting started. I love a good opening story. A hearty laugh or a compelling metaphor. I set goals like a maniac. But when […]
Holding Tension in Community
There are many “tensions” or differences that we run into when building and existing within community. A faith community is no different. I think Camas Friends Church excels at doing this kind of work together. Here are some of the things I have learned from the way this meeting does community with each other.
In the Deep End With Grief: Thoughts On Pastoral Care to Those Hurting Most
As the previous year comes to a close, I’m reposting some articles from 2014 I wrote elsewhere on the web. This is a post I wrote about grief that originally posted on the blog Antioch Session. I find it hard to carry the weight of my own pain, let alone the weight of another. I […]
Nancy Duarte on Effective Communication
Thinking Quakers, Money and Stewardship
A couple months back I started feeling the tug to wrestle with the topic of money in the church. As a preacher, I’ve largely avoided the topic like the plague. These are the kinds of things I nightmares about. I was a budding and impressionable young man when PTL when bankrupt and Jim Baker headed […]
“On the Harm We Have Done” (A Prayer)
Here is a moving prayer confessing the harm that we the church can too often cause: OUR Father, we look back on the years that are gone and shame and sorrow come upon us, for the harm we have done to others rises up in our mem- ory to accuse us. Some we have seared […]
