Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

Faith

The search for meaning, purpose, and relationship. Our need for love compels us to seek it out, and when we find it, share it.

  • We often speak of being “off duty” when not at work. We speak of our work days and the double lives of “work me” and “real me”. For the presbyter, there is no such distinction. Or at least there shouldn’t be. The toxic effects of split roles in ministry are numerous. So for clergy, there is…

  • [SPOILER ALERT: This post contains Season 2 spoilers of The Walking Dead. I’m not kidding. Seriously important ones. If you have any interest in enjoying this show, stop reading, bookmark this page, and come back later. Otherwise, read away. Chris and Emily, you are absolved.] The second season of The Walking Dead revealed the most important ethical quandry…

  • God is perfect, but our worship isn’t, despite what we might think. The seemingly fixed nature of our worship belies the truth: worship throughout history has been spontaneous and full of joy. We have gone through eras, particularly the medieval period, in which liturgy (the work of the people) was done in a language unknown to its…

  • In church circles there is a lot of exercise around the idea that there is dichotomous relationship between our beliefs and our actions. This is particularly evident between the groups Phyllis Tickle refers to as the Social Justice Christians (ie. the Mainliners) and the Conservative Christians (conservative evangelicals and Southern Baptists). In this paradigm, one…

  • That is the question I have for Monday. For the liturgical snobs out there, I know that it is Lent and we aren’t encouraged by Michno to bless in Lent, but to recite a “prayer over the people,” as was the most ancient custom of what would become the blessing much later.  It is a…

  • I used to have a reoccurring conversation with a friend in college about equality.  He is a libertarian and argues for minimal interference and rules.  I am not.  He would talk about the level playing field between he and minorities, including women.  He argued that they had the same chances he had.  I pointed out that he…