There's a story in the lore of First Christian Church-Minneapolis that involves one Dr. George Haggard. Dr. Haggard was already pretty advanced in years when the story begins, but his spirit was still young. What was then Portland Avenue Church of Christ (we became First Christian Church-again-in 1955) was thinking about building a new church... Continue Reading →
Thoughts About Young Clergy
Carol Howard Merritt has a post up about the young clergy crisis. Here's a bit of her post: Since I’ve been chairing a national Presbyterian Church (USA) committee on the Nature of the Church for the 21st century, I’ve been gaining a different perspective on many of the larger trends of our denomination. One thing... Continue Reading →
Thoughts About Young Clergy
Carol Howard Merritt has a post up about the young clergy crisis. Here's a bit of her post: Since I’ve been chairing a national Presbyterian Church (USA) committee on the Nature of the Church for the 21st century, I’ve been gaining a different perspective on many of the larger trends of our denomination. One thing... Continue Reading →
“A Glimse of What Is Possible”
The word is getting around about SpringHouse Ministry Center (that's the new name), the new building where First Christian is moving to and working with a UCC and a Lutheran congregation. I've shared about how First Christian came to join this partnership and now here are some words from Geoffrey Black, the General Minister and... Continue Reading →
“Welcoming Every Member of the Body”
As many of you know, besides my duties as the Associate Pastor at First Christian in Minneapolis, I also work as the Communications Specialist for the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area. I worked with the Presbytery's Disabilities Concerns Taskforce to put together a special issue InPrint, the bimonthly newsmagazine I put out. There are... Continue Reading →
Repost: Come and Visit My Church
From December 2010: A few years ago, I got a call from someone who wanted to visit Community of Grace, the church start that I did a few years ago. The person wanted to know about the church and it seemed they were interested in benig part of a church with a big choir and... Continue Reading →
"The Table Reveals Who We Are"
Disciples like to call that thing that's up front in the sanctuary a table. Lutherans used to call it an altar, but more and more they've started following us and calling it a table. Far more humble and fitting in my view. Disciples Pastor Lee Yates reminds us that the Table reveals who we really... Continue Reading →
The End of the Big Blue Church
Walter Russell Mead is a writer that mainly focuses on politics. However, in today's blog post, he focuses on the church or I should say specifically the mainline Protestant church. His post, which is wonderously titled, "The Holy Crap Must Go," is basically saying that it is time for a spring cleaning in the church.... Continue Reading →
The Clockwork Pastor 