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Prayers of the People
I try not to be a micromanager. Preparing our worship, inspiring, gathering, inviting into participation is a big part of what I am called to do as a priest. The training we receive in seminary is intended to give us a certain expertise. My writing training has given me certain skills (and ego) to lead…
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Adult Formation
A friend recently said that the church is always 10 years behind. When he said this, I nodded as I thought through all the ways we are behind the world. Technology, marketing, human rights, anti-institutionalism, shifting political landscapes, family trends including divorce rates, break-ups, and coupling outside of marriage. I frequently point out that many of…
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Children’s Sermon
I didn’t grow up with a regular children’s sermon. Sometimes, we’d be brought up to the front two pews and there was something, maybe it was a children’s sermon…I know we had picture books. Dad likes to read picture books to the children sometimes. That usually is after finding some new ones at Barnes &…
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Sunday School
If you talk to certain people, you would get the impression that children were never in church. That church isn’t really for them, anyway. It’s for adults. Kids need to learn about church before they can be in church, they argue. This certainly is not true. Sunday School was only created at the end of…
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Sermon as Teaching
My Dad’s a good preacher. He isn’t the lift the roof off the rafters type. Nor is he egg-heady with scattered references to German theologians. And he isn’t a daily living preacher, either. He doesn’t do genre. He does story and he tries to make sense of the gospel and what people are dealing with…
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Preach
“Woe is me if I preach not the gospel” Outside the chapel, Paul’s words belie the most simple of Christian conditions. The call to serve GOD through Christ is deeply personal. “Woe is me,” we might argue, “not woe is we.” Then we keep going. “Woe is me If I preach not the gospel.” This is on…
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Gospel
I first really heard the gospel in school. I was in an undergrad Bible class on Paul; the kind of distributive requirement that seemed like a natural fit for me. English major; PK (priest’s kid). The professor was an Orthodox bishop, Makarios. And his thick Indian accent meant that we had to really listen. Listen…
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New Testament
The New Testament is about Jesus. The later testament, this one written in Greek, is simple really. It tells the story of Jesus and then his followers. In some ways, the text we refer to as the New Testament never gets much more complicated than that. The complexity doesn’t actually come from the Greek Scriptures…