Musings on Faith, Culture and ADHD
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 →
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 →
I wrote this post back in 2006. A lot has changed since this post was written. Sadly, how Progressive Christians view church planting isn't one of them. I sometimes wonder if mainline Protestant churches really have a passion for new churches. I won't go into the nitty gritty of the situation with Community of... Continue Reading →
I'm a city kid. I grew up in Flint, Michigan and was only an hour away from Detroit. The 1970s, my childhood, was the time when we heard a new phrase: white flight. It was a time when whites who lived in cities like Flint and Detroit, left the inner cities to head to a... Continue Reading →
What is the role of the church in a society? That's the question that I've been trying to answer for a few years. I think blogger Michael Kruse came up with the best answer. Before I get to Michael's quote, let's look at opinion piece by David Brooks that Kruse comments on. Brooks offer his... Continue Reading →
Doug Skinner: As I was getting ready to come to church early Sunday morning, the anchor of the news show that I had on as background noise announced that “Christians all over the country were going to be hearing sermons about gun violence in church today.” I didn’t get the memo. But even if I... Continue Reading →
This was a sermon I preached on the First Sunday of Advent 2006 in the waning days of Community of Grace, the new church plant I was a part of. “Stir It Up!” Luke 21:25-36 December 3, 2006 Community of Grace Christian Church Minneapolis, MN This week has been hell. Not a good way to... Continue Reading →
On the heels of what I wrote late last week on the pitfalls of Progressive Christianity, there has been a flurry of articles on the future of liberal Christianity. I want to start off with a piece by Allan Bevere who wrote the following last Friday: In recent years evangelical Protestantism has been going through a... Continue Reading →
The church where I'm the Associate Pastor (First Christian Church in Minneapolis) is considering becoming an official Open and Affirming Congregation in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). The congregation has a long history of welcoming gay and lesbian folk into the life of the congregation, so in many ways they have been a living... Continue Reading →
Jim, left and my partner, Daniel, right. From August 2010. As First Christian plans its future, a constant among the plans is to leave some money aside for to plant new churches. Both the Senior Pastor and I have made this a priority in what ever decisions are made. That has been met with some... Continue Reading →
The Clockwork Pastor 