Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

Death

  • Focus on the Body

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    5 min read

    The body of Michael Brown lay in the street for over four hours. Nearly every conversation I have had or story I’ve consumed about Michael Brown has focused on the circumstances or the politics surrounding his death. We have focused on what led up to the shooting, about the character, the police, the press, the…

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  • To Choose

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    6 min read

    a homily for Proper 18C Text: Luke 14:25-33 Listen and read along! The Choice This might shock you, but when pastors get together, we talk about you. Not you in the particular. We talk about congregations and what we hear each Sunday as we shake hands. This is often the only time we get feedback…

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  • A Growing Church is a Dying Church « The Theological Wanderings of a Street Pastor

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    1 min read

    Sometimes what we all need is some good ol’ truth-telling. The prophetic sort. The kind that we gloss over read each week from Jesus. J. Barrett Lee timed this one perfectly: A Growing Church is a Dying Church « The Theological Wanderings of a Street Pastor. In light of Sunday’s gospel, our call to sacrifice, here…

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  • Christianity and the Falling Man

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    8 min read

    From Surreal to Real Hearing that a plane had hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center wasn’t the most arresting thing I heard eleven years ago. At work, the rampant speculating, the absurd discontinuity of airplanes and buildings in far away places made the tragedy distant somehow. News spread in the waning minutes…

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  • Is a Dead 1st Grader Enough Incentive To Change?

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    4 min read

    My wife didn’t say anything.  I walked into the living room and saw on my phone that she had tweeted this: [tweet https://twitter.com/#!/DownsRose/status/155839622402945025] What? I said.  She looked at me and said That is my worst nightmare. She read parts of the news story. She was 7. They had an action plan. She authorized Benadryl, but…

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