Musings on Faith, Culture and ADHD
“Leave Your Light On For Me” Matthew 5:13-20 Fifth Sunday of Epiphany February 9, 2014 First Christian Church Mahtomedi, MN This past December, a party was thrown in my honor. A few weeks earlier, I left my job as Communications Specialist for the Presbytery of the Twin Cities Area. My job had been eliminated due... Continue Reading →
“What If God Was One of Us?” John 1:10-18 and Matthew 2:1-12 Second Sunday of Christmas/Epiphany January 5, 2014 First Christian Church Mahtomedi, MN One of my earliest memories of Epiphany was seeing a manger on display at Emmanuel Lutheran School in Flint, Michigan. It was the winter of 1978 and I can remember standing... Continue Reading →
As most of you know, I've been the head of a new church ministry in my Region. There have been some good and not so good developments in the area of church planting last year, though for the most part it was a down year in many ways. The good news is that our group... Continue Reading →
“Things Can Only Get Better” Isaiah 11:1-10 Second Sunday of Advent December 8, 2013 First Christian Church Mahtomedi, MN When I Daniel and I moved to our house in North Minneapolis back in 2007, there was a large Silver Maple tree in the backyard. This tree was quite fruitful, because we were always getting rid... Continue Reading →
I haven't followed the news about Methodist minister Frank Schaefer as closely as I should have. For those who know even less, Frank Schaefer faced a church trail for going against the Book of Discipline by marrying two men (one of who happened to be his son). What I do know about the affair has... Continue Reading →
A sermon for the First Sunday of Advent from 2010. “Unsafe at Any Speed” Matthew 24:36-44; Isaiah 2:1-5 November 28, 2010 Advent 1 First Christian Church Minneapolis, MN In the Spring of 1990, I was a junior at Michigan State University. For Spring Break that year, I went on a trip to retreat center... Continue Reading →
I stumbled on this blog post about the renewal of United Theological Seminary in Ohio. The school now has 600 students but only a few years ago it had only 130. Some think their addition of distance learning has made the difference, but Jason Vickers, a professor at the Methodist seminary says the real difference... Continue Reading →
There are folks who tend to focus on the "numbers" taking place in Mainline Protestantism with concern. One example is an article written in 1987 by William Willomon and Robert Wilson. They looked at the numbers and didn't like what they see: The Methodist and the Evangelical United Brethren Churches each began to experience a... Continue Reading →
From Homebrewed Christianity: We have a problem: On the one hand, the union-like conditions for leading in Mainline churches, i.e. “having to put in one’s dues,” seems to stifle any creative means of formulating new ways to interact with one’s culture. You might even say that processes such as ordination are less about learning to... Continue Reading →
Things are not going well in American Mainline Protestantism. Despite all the talk about how religious progressives are winning the day over the Religious Right, I tend to see a tradition that is in decline. I see churches closing- the remaining members too tired to continue. I see churches that are still going on, uncertain... Continue Reading →
The Clockwork Pastor 