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Cargo Container Church
I’m claiming it now. I want to do a cargo container church. I’ve been reading Ready Made and Dwell and I know that people have transformed old cargo containers into living space. Now that Starbucks has unveiled a cargo container store, it is high time we renovate in this direction. I say no more big…
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On Creating More Hassles
In today’s blog post, “On creating a hassle,” Seth Godin writes: To quote Merlin Mann, “You don’t let the guy with the broom control how many elephants are in the parade.” Harsh to say, but the fact is that great storytellers and artists and ruckus makers manage to insulate themselves from the people they’re going…
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With Regards To Conflict
MadPriest made a cogent statement over at his blog about the relationship between Sudan and the Episcopal Church: The Episcopal Church of Sudan’s retraction of their invitation to the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in the USA is like the Jew set upon by robbers, upon his recovery, telling the good Samaritan to fuck…
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It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
My friend Penny brings new light to Christmas through a discovery of a missing verse from the classic hymn: “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear”. I’ve always loved this evocative hymn, with its angels and their unfurled wings coming to us through a mysterious door from heaven to bring God’s news to us in splendid…
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A Humble Beginning
My Christmas Message Christmas isn’t just some story about family. It isn’t about shopping or gift-giving. It isn’t about all the hoopla. And even “putting Christ back into Christmas” is to make Christmas something it isn’t. It is way more than that. Have a very Merry Christmas!
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A Second Wedding
Last night I presided over a reaffirmation of marriage for an amazing couple. Bill and Amy have been married for 20 years, and as they described to me, almost all of it has been wonderful. But some of it was incredibly rough. So this was a really big deal. I was moved by their devotion to one…
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Church: Club, Community, or Neither?
Awhile back I wrote about how much I hate announcement time. Go back and take a look at it, because I feel justified in saying that. Announcement time, as I’ve experienced it in the several congregations I’ve served has, for the most part, been a horrible train wreck. This is mostly the case because it is…
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Is Honesty Required? Ringer and the Politics of Redemption
I’ve gotten hooked on the CW’s Ringer, a ridiculous show about twins, changing identity, and the attempt to change one’s life. As TV, it is pure pulp, threads the line, not between plausible and implausible, but between implausible and ludicrous. However, as study of human chaos and redemption, there is nothing like it on broadcast…