“He replied, “Neither, but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped, and said to him, “What do you command your servant, my lord?” The commander of the army of the Lord said to Joshua,… Continue reading
A sermon about challenging the system, lifting up young adults, intergenerational faith formation, new and emerging languages of faith, the Holy Spirit and LeBron James. Sermon manuscript from June 7 Audio version of sermon
We step towards each other and those around us, and we remind each other that “there’s no space where God’s love can’t reach. There’s no place where we can’t find peace.” And then we stand together One of the challenges of contemporary worship is creating space for complicated emotions like… Continue reading
If there is one theological concept that is really hard for me to wrap my head around, it’s this concept of God’s radical love for humanity. More than humanity…God’s radical love for ME. Mind you, this is something I teach about all the time. Recently, I even preached about it…. Continue reading
It’s been a while, but I finally got my Maundy Thursday sermon added. Looking back at this sermon, I don’t know if I got it right or not. You’ll remember that April 2 was Maundy Thursday, but was also the day of the shootings in Garissa, Kenya. I spent the… Continue reading
At a Deaconess Board Retreat, this question was posed: “Think of one person in your context…what is that person teaching you?” The first person who came to mind for me was a 4 yr. old in my congregation. When she’s there on a Sunday morning, this little girl sits with… Continue reading
I recently began reading the book “When Helping Hurts,” by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. I’ve heard about this book in the context of reflecting on attitudes and methods used in “Christian Outreach” that are…less than helpful. I’m reading it to increase my capacity to engage a conversation about the… Continue reading
This past Sunday I preached. People have been encouraging me to preach without a manuscript, but I couldn’t quite do it. Prep time. Confidence in what I was saying. Overall enthusiasm. Yeah…I needed the manuscript.
I would claim that I’m not one for the more ‘spiritual’ spiritual practices–like yoga, contemplative prayer, holy stretching, etc. I can remember snickering and scoffing at such practices in college and as a younger adult. Inevitably, when I found myself in a context where we were invited to sit straight… Continue reading
I have found that often when I am preparing a sermon, I end up convicted by the very thoughts I am forming into a sermon. I was not expecting to preach on Christmas Eve, but at the last minute I was given the notes of a sermon the pastor was… Continue reading