Blogs
Monday Memo: A Charcoal Fire
2/21/2022
A Charcoal Fire I was thinking... There are moments in life in which the vocabulary we are given do not accurately express such moments. Having just returned from 10 days in the Holy Land with recently ordained clergy and others, I must say this is, once again, one of those moments. I am poorly gifted to communicate the way God uses the five senses to express the Gospel. While in person in Bethlehem, Galilee, and Jerusalem all senses were busy. There ...
Monday Memo: Wisdom
2/14/2022
Wisdom I was thinking... Several years ago, I was privileged to team teach with my bride a course on the book of Proverbs. As is always the case for me, when preparing to teach I end up learning more than if I were to just be the student. I have read and re-read the book of Proverbs. I like to read it especially during the months where there are 31 days. I’ll take one proverb for each day to read, study and learn. I ran across a recent mixture of contemporary ...
Digital Landscape: Four Steps to Reaching Your Community
2/8/2022
As we pioneer the digital landscape, it is without a doubt going to have some bumps along the way. From glitching equipment, user errors, and the unforeseen guest that creeps into video backdrops, this act of failing forward is part of the journey. Though some hiccups will be unavoidable, there are a few things that can help alleviate some bruising along the way. #1 Identify Your Audience Before you create another piece of content, ask yourself, “Who is my audience?” Consider who it is on the ...
Monday Memo: Slippery Slopes
2/7/2022
Slippery Slopes I was thinking... Sister Joan Chittister has opened my eyes at many levels with regards to faith journey. She writes on the subject of humility words that struck a chord. Perhaps they will strike a chord with you as well: “…humility is the ability to submit ourselves to the wisdom of another. We are not the last word, the final answer, the clearest insight into anything. We have one word among many to contribute to the mosaic of life, one ...
Creating Sacred Space in Digital Places
2/1/2022
I can recall standing in my pantry at the beginning of the pandemic, exhausted and weary. The first two weeks of being at home with my family was fun and restful. We did everything from playing games to having family workouts, movie nights, baking, bonfires, campouts, and even managed to figure out how to do schoolwork at home. But, here we were, two weeks later, and the weariness of our situation was beginning to weigh on me. It wasn't long before I was standing in the pantry, weeping. I ...
Monday Memo: Focus the Filter
1/31/2022
Focus the Filter I was thinking... There is a little structure in our brainstem called the reticular activating system. The reticular activating system is our brain's filter; it allows us to filter through all the sensory stimuli we receive and focus only on what is important to us. The reticular activating system allows us to filter out the hum of the air conditioner, the itchy sweater we're wearing, the flickering light overhead, so that we can focus on the ...
Monday Memo: Soul Window
1/24/2022
Soul Window I was thinking... I have been asked on many occasions across the years “What is the best method of evangelism?” The person asking seems to most often be looking for a formula or program for a church or group who feels called to win personal commitments to Christ. I am continuing to learn that quite often the search for knowledge is found in the question rather than the answer. With this question comes a layer of other questions that could prove ...
Monday Memo: Seasoned
12/13/2021
Seasoned I was thinking... With the slip of the tongue, our 5-year-old grandson asks the question, “Pop, when is the pan-dam-ic going to be over with?” We chuckled knowing what he meant but also knowing that we were all feeling a similar emphasis in our weariness with COVID-19 and all her variants. I recall a physician friend saying to me in early 2020 that he thought that as many as a million people worldwide could be infected by the spread of COVID-19. He ...
Monday Memo: Weary Thinking
11/29/2021
Weary Thinking I was thinking... What is it that makes our thinking weary? I assume we all experience those moments (maybe even seasons) when “we are so tired that we can’t think straight”? Perhaps we find ourselves in a rhythm of busy-ness to the point our intuitive senses and brain are depleted. Or maybe we find ourselves in a place of loss…the holidays often cause such loss to elevate itself in our lives. Whether it be job loss, divorce, death of a lovedone, ...
Monday Memo: Pearls
11/1/2021
Pearls I was thinking... Pearls have been on my mind lately. They are everywhere. Who would have thought that a baseball player wearing pearls would create such a phenomenon? Joc Pederson of the Atlanta Braves is a different sort of guy. Instead of all the gold with bling that so many of today’s Professional baseball players wear, he began in September to wear a string of pearls. Immediately it was noticed because those pearls seemed so out of place. However, as ...