Uncategorized - Gathering In Light

A Reading for Advent – Oscar Romero

No one can celebrate a genuine Christmas without being truly poor. The self-sufficient, the proud, those who, because they have everything, look down on others, those who have no need even of God – for them there will be no Christmas. Only the poor, the hungry, those who need someone to

Uncategorized

More Than Half

I turned 41 in October. My wife, Emily, who celebrated her birthday today (11/17) is right behind me. While we were at dinner this afternoon, it occurred to us that we’ve celebrated more birthdays together than we celebrated apart. We’ve finally tipped the scale and have spent

Uncategorized

A Refreshed Site!

I’ve been blogging on WordPress.org since 2004 and blogging since at least 2001 (a Xanga site for those of you keeping track). Recently, I came across my old blogroll (a set of links of blogs you followed, supported, wanted to give props to), and 8 out of 10

Uncategorized

The Banality of Evil

Recently, I was listening to a podcast from OnBeing about Hannah Arendt who spoke about what she called “the banality of evil.” (“The Banality of Evil” is covered in her 1963 book about the Jerusalem trial of Holocaust architect Adolf Eichmann). The Ardent scholar on the podcast, Lyndsey Stonebridge, explains

Uncategorized

Revelation and Resisting Empire Event Next Week

I was invited to speak on the subject of “Revelation and Empire” at Providence Baptist Church of Greensboro by my good friend, Rev. Darryl Aaron on 6:30pm on September 9-10. These are themes covered in my recent book “Resisting Empire” from Barclay Presshttps://amzn.to/2YhSxio. Following these presentations

Uncategorized

Have Your Lamps Lit: The Practice of Growing in Awareness

I’ve been reflecting on the passage from the Gospel of Luke 12:35ff this week where Jesus says the words, “Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; 36 be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may

Uncategorized

Thinking Core Stories

Core Stories To state the obvious: all organizations have life cycles. That is true whether we are thinking about faith communities, businesses, non-profits, schools, etc. We could think of organizations as a collected and sustained series of stories over time. It might be easier to think about the role of

Uncategorized

It Is Closer Than You Think

Is faith always a long reach out of hand? I wonder when I see people searching, struggling to find God if the thought is the more distant the revelation, the greater the conversion? One of the underlying practices in certain parts of the Christian Church is to praise those who

Uncategorized

Discerning Endings

New beginnings are hard. Endings may be even harder. It is hard to say goodbye. It is hard to see all the hard work, all the investment evaporate before our very eyes. It is hard to know when to let go. Some endings are not hard. Some endings are more

Uncategorized

New EBook is Out! Resisting Empire: The Book of Revelation as Resistance

Hi Everyone, I’m so excited to announce that my new EBook from Barclay Press on the book of Revelation is now out. It is available through Amazon.com. Check it out!

Renewing Faith

Yoda on Renewing the Tradition

I was re-watching The Last Jedi with the family yesterday and the scene with Yoda and Luke at the Sacred Tree with all the old texts hit me like a ton of bricks. Yoda is totally convergent, wanting to see the tradition renewed and remixed, while Luke is seen here

Uncategorized

Introducing Fireweed Coffee Co.

This past summer I decided to create a little side-project, roasting coffee and selling it at our weekly farmer’s market and online. Some of you are aware of this, but I have never announced “Fireweed Coffee” on Gathering in Light. The purpose was to really make a creative outlet

Uncategorized

On Bogus Religion and Elitism

I came across this passage in my reading this morning and it struck me. Like so many things, this connects to some of the things I’ve been working on and thinking about these past few months. Back in January, I went to a great workshop with Soulforce on “Christian

Uncategorized

New Quaker Studies Publications Out

For those of you following this blog, I wanted to share with you two recent publications that I’ve worked on this past year in case you have interested in finding out more about them. Quaker Studies: An Overview: The Current State of the Field Authors: C. Wess Daniels, Robynne

Uncategorized

Witnesses by Peggy Morrison

This morning we enjoyed an beautiful Easter sunrise service next to the lake on the campus of Guilford College. We had a bonfire going, read the Gospel of John’s account of the resurrection, enjoyed singing together, and shared in some silence as well. We had students, staff, faculty and

Uncategorized

New Essay on The Speed of Group Discernment

https://medium.com/nursery-of-truth/principle-vs-preference-the-speed-of-quaker-decision-making-58286864b08d I’ve posted a longer essay on the process of group discernment and some of the things that help move group discernment forward and some of the things that get in the way and keep it from moving along smoothly. This essay is over on

Uncategorized

Upcoming Trip to FCNL Meeting in November

I’ll be heading to the FCNL Annual Meeting in November and will be speaking on Sunday morning. I’m looking forward to the time and meeting folks who are a part of that great organization. Here is a post I wrote for their blog in preparation for our time

Uncategorized

Convergent Friends on The “Quaker Faith & Podcast”

MacKenzie Morgan, also known as “Maco” online, of the Quaker Faith & Podcast interviewed me while she was in Greensboro at Guilford College this past week for the Friends Association of Higher Education Conference. I had a lot of fun chatting with MacKenzie about Convergent Friends, Remix and Participatory Culture.

Bag of Tricks

Revelation at Great Plains Yearly Meeting

This past week, I had the opportunity to travel to Great Plains Yearly Meeting, gathered in Wichita, KS to speak about the book of Revelation. The yearly meeting itself was a lovely and joyous gathering, they welcomed new meetings into their group, celebrate past members, and besides getting business done,

Uncategorized

The Challenge of “Truth” – Part 2

This is the second of a three-part post on whether or not Quakers can be “Publishers of Truth” today. In this series I want to talk about how I think early Quakers understood what it meant to be “publishers of truth” in earlier years (Part 1), just a couple challenges

Uncategorized

God as a Weaving Pattern | Quaker faith and Practice

We may picture God as weaving a pattern with the lives of men and women. We can glimpse but small fragments of the whole design; in moments of inspiration we can see more clearly, while the saints see most of all. Through it there runs a Quaker strand. It may

Uncategorized

Moving Into Interfaith Leadership

I recently read Eboo Patel’s new book, Interfaith Leadership: A Primer (2016). I’d recommend it to any student looking to go into the field of interfaith work, or any minister or religious leader trying to find ways to reorient their spiritual work in this changing religious landscape. Patel’

Uncategorized

Mary: Revolutionary for Our Time

It is advent, a critical moment in the church calendar. It is post-election, a critical moment in the life of the United States. Advent is marked as a time of quiet, expectant waiting. There is hope in birth narratives of Jesus, but it is hope tempered by loss, defeat, and

Uncategorized

Poverty, Empire and The Bible: Reading the Bible Off-Center (an online study)

Last night about 35 people from around the Greensboro area gathered at First Friends Meeting to begin a conversation around how we can read and re-read the Bible in ways that not only pays attention to our own privileges and biases we take to the text but the lenses and

Uncategorized

Being bilingual in Quaker Outreach (Guest Post Robin Mohr)

This is a guest post from my good friend and General Secretary of FWCC Section of the Americas, Robin Mohr, following up on a talk she gave at the Emerging Practices in Quaker Outreach from NEYM. How many of you speak another language? Meaning, raise your hand if you speak