Musings on Faith, Culture and ADHD
Carol Howard Merritt has an interesting blog post about declining churches and ten ways for new churches to sprout. One of the thing that she focuses on is that many churches built buildings for the 1950s, when churches were incredibly full. But over the last few decades, many of these mainline Protestant churches have declined,... Continue Reading →
An interesting and hopeful take on Matthew 25:31-46 (and you get to learn a little Methodist history as well!).
From 2007.... In starting to make my way around the Emergent and Missional circles, I've started to notice two things especially about the Emergent movement: It tends to be really, really white. There is not a lot of talk on being gay. I will get back to topic number one another time, but I wanted... Continue Reading →
A few days ago, I got an email from some person who didn't like the fact that I was gay and that the church I serve is okay with gay folk. The writer said something to the effect that I was basically hellbound and that I needed to ask God for forgiveness for being gay.... Continue Reading →
Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the... Continue Reading →
I think I took this quiz a couple of years ago. Still haven't changed. You Scored as Neo orthodoxYou are neo-orthodox. You reject the human-centredness and scepticism of liberal theology, but neither do you go to the other extreme and make the Bible the central issue for faith. You believe that Christ is God's... Continue Reading →
Ross Douthat has been one my favorite columnists and his next book seems like one to pay attention to: Fromthe popularNew York Times columnist, a powerfuland original critique of howAmerican Christianity has gone astray—and the deeply troubling consequences for American life and politics.As the youngest-ever op-ed columnist for The New York Times and the author... Continue Reading →
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 →
I usually post my sermons soon after I preach them, but for some reason I didn't post this one last year. I filled in for the pastor at Plymouth Creek Christian Church in Plymouth, MN. Part of the reason I share this now is that I want to tell part of the ongoing story of... Continue Reading →
A few weeks back, I happened to be browsing the religious website Patheos and came accross a blog post by Greg Garrett called "God Commands Compassion, Not Evangelism." The title fascinated me and the excerpt was even more interesting: "Christianity is not about praying in a certain way, or believing a certain thing, or making... Continue Reading →
The Clockwork Pastor 