Featured The Taste of Truth (John 18:33-38) “Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate asked him, “What is
Blog Entries 3 Reasons I Love to Blog “I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.” -Flannery O’Connor /ht color turtle I’ve been following John Saddington’s 10 day blog challenge as a means of both getting into the groove of writing more and developing my site here.
Blog Entries ▶ Marshawn Lynch and the Theater of Disobedience [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUI54niIfl8] via ▶ Marshawn Lynch and the Theater of Disobedience – YouTube. A powerful commentary by Jay Smooth not just on the game but on a number of critical issues that present themselves within the NFL. /ht Shelly F.
Blog Entries The Contours of Convers(at)ions Yesterday I began to sketch out some thoughts on how my approach to teaching the Bible has shifted towards a participatory understanding of learning and community. (This is no small part is influenced by the research of my dissertation and is reflected in much greater detail there and in my
Blog Entries Convers(at)ions With Scripture There has been an evolution of thought for me when it comes to understanding how to read, interpret and teach Scripture within community. That evolution has taken place over the course the last 18 years or so (I’ve been leading bible studies since I was in High School myself)
Featured The Maze Dull Truth (Mark 1:21-28) Expectations and Maze Dull Rats Robert Rosenthal was a psychologist who is famous for his experiment with rats in a maze. The experiment looked at “expectancy effects” and how our expectations have a direct effect on the outcome of what we are doing (link). In 1963, Rosenthal took two groups
The Pastorate 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
Convergent Friends Convergent Friends: A Handbook Part 2 – Starting Your Own Convergent Friends Worship Group Three years ago we started a monthly convergent Friends worship gathering in the Camas/Portland Metro area. The goal of the meeting was to bring those Friends who desire to worship together, build relationships and create an open and flexible worship liturgy that can be adapted according to those who
Convergent Friends Convergent Friends: A Handbook – An Introduction to Convergence (Pt. 1) In this online handbook you will find a variety of articles written by convergent Friends. This is by no means an exhaustive collection of writings but rather it is meant to function as an introduction to the concept of convergent Friends and part two of the handbook is meant to
The Pastorate 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
Featured The Plush Silence of Heaven (Psalm 82) This is the message I gave this past Sunday based on Psalm 82. God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment: “How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah Give justice to the weak and
Blog Entries Endorsements for my Upcoming Book Here are some endorsements from fine folks in the academic and Quaker world who have had an opportunity to read my book, A Convergent Model of Renewal: Remixing the Quaker Tradition in a Participatory Culture (2015). This is what they are saying about it: Dr. Ryan K. Bolger, PHD. Associate
Blog Entries Books I Loved Reading In 2014 I love books and I love to read. This past year I started keeping a little better track of the books I read using a simple reading log at the back of one of my notebooks. This makes it a lot easier to not only remember the books I read,
Teaching Building a Participatory Pedagogy Given my love for teaching, and my forced time off this winter semester, a time I would typically be teaching, and the various teaching opportunities I have with Camas Friends, I have been reflecting a lot on what it means for me to be an educator. I want to share
Blog Entries A “Convergent Model” Book is Coming One of the editors from Pickwick Publications sent me the uncorrected proofs of my soon-to-be published book, “A Convergent Model of Renewal: Remixing the Quaker Tradition in a Participatory Culture.” It is amazing how much work goes into making this happen, from the research, writing and countless hours editing, I
Featured Portraits of Failure, Communion of Love Portraits of Failure A man named Asaph is believed to be the author of the Psalm. It is about his wrestling with his own failure and the near miss of being sucked into the illusion of measuring life in relation to successes and failures. “No doubt about it! God is
Blog Entries Make a Simple Reading Log For as much as I love reading books, and for as many as I’ve read, I haven’t been very good about keeping track of my reading over the years. So last year I created a very simple reading log on the back two pages of my notebook. I
Featured Where the Sidewalk Ends (Psalm 44) This is an adapted version of a message I gave this past Sunday. It draws on themes from Psalm 44. As I have been reflecting on the theme of lament I realized that lament is the byproduct of those communities trying to live out faithfulness in a world. A community
Blog Entries A Few Favorite Posts From 2014 In case you missed these or are new to following this blog, I wanted to share some of my favorite posts from the past year. They’re not necessarily the most read but ones that I feel particularly good about for one reason or another. I feel that this year
Blog Entries Year in Review – 2014 It’s the end of the year and whether you’ve been reading Gathering In Light for the 10 years it has been around or you are a new reader, this has been quite a year for all kinds of reasons. In comparison to past years, I have been pretty
lament Lament: Brought to Speech (Psalm 13) What is Lament? In January for the past 4 or 5 years we’ve participated in Peace Month with other churches from our Yearly Meeting. This January our focus is Lament and peace. We are going to talk about personal lament, communal lament, and more. You may wonder the connection
Featured 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
Blog Entries 15 things I learned in 2014 (or at least tried too) 1. Taking risks is worth the unknowns that follow. 2. Progress can be made. Keep working to engineer a new kind of engine. 3. You can expect to find either a door (or a window) in an unlit room, you just have to keeping search for it. 4. Conflict is
Featured We Are The Stargazers (Matthew 2:1-12) Herod and The Theologians Our passage this morning presents two contrasting groups of people discerning the will of God. King Herod and the Theologians on one side and the “three wise men” or Magi on the other. The arrival of Jesus makes for a very real, very large scale, as
