Yesterday afternoon I went to the local pharmacy to pick up a prescription.  Being the beginning of the year, and all the changes in health insurance, it was a little hectic, and communication between the pharmacists and the counter staff were a little strained.  While searching for my prescription there was a little bit of heated dialogue between the two groups, and no one seemed to know where my items were.  I was told by a lady [...]

On Tuesday I shared some of the discussion that I had with one of my former students about his experience with the church over the past decade.  The conversation was triggered by a post on the cooperation between the churches in Portland, and the city’s openly gay mayor. My motivation for writing the original post was not to beat up on the church, but to encourage the church to take responsibility for the reputation that [...]

A few weeks ago I shared about a partnership between the City of Portland and the churches in that city.  Shortly after posting the original article, a former student of mine and I struck up a conversation about that article, and some of his experience over the last few years.  His story is heartbreaking to me, and should be to the church as a whole, as he has found it necessary to step away from the church [...]

Long Island’s mild winter has been a good thing for my family and our garden.  We have been enjoying fresh kale at least once a week with our dinners (creamed kale, sauteed kale, kale with garlic and mushrooms, and on and on).  I am a little concerned that the kale we froze over the winter isn’t going to get used any time soon.  The mild weather has also enabled me to put off cleaning up [...]

Two hundred years ago slavery was considered to be an acceptable institution. One hundred years ago women were not considered to be competent to vote. Fifty years ago discrimination based on skin color was considered to be a way of life. The church played a major role in ending each of these injustices.  The church also played a role in keeping them in place. Fifty, one hundred, and two hundred years from now what injustices [...]

Out of Ur recently shared a video of an ABC news piece dealing with the relationship between the evangelical community in Portland, Oregon, and Portland’s openly gay mayor, Sam Adams.  I thought the piece was well done and it deeply resonates with me and how I believe the church needs to be functioning in the years to come. While church planting in Baltimore we commonly worked with a broad range of groups on common ground [...]

Look at the nations and watch— and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told. -Habakkuk 1:5 And so starts 2012.  I am genuinely excited for what lies ahead this year… more so than I have been for the start of a new year in quite a while.    As I enter 2012 the opportunities and challenges that are in front [...]

This was originally posted in September, and I think it is hugely important to anyone in church leadership… What do you think? Ronnie Floyd had a great post on insecure pastors on Monday that has had me thinking.  In true Southern Baptist style, Ronnie outlines the three warning signs of an insecure pastor with skillful alliteration: Competitiveness– One of the biggest problems insecurity carries with it is overt competition. Churches try to “out-do” one another. Pastors [...]

This week I am taking a break from posting and re-posting some of the more popular posts from the last year as well as some of my favorite posts.  This post originally ran on September 22, 2011… enjoy! On Tuesday the Internet Monk’s Chaplain Mike shared his thoughts on Shaun King’s resignation from Courageous Church in Atlanta.  This was the first that I had heard about it, and I have spent the last couple of days reading more about [...]

It is hard to believe that Christmas Eve is only five days away. As you rush from party to party, event to event, and program to program my prayer for church leaders is that you will have the opportunity to stop, exhale, and adore Him.  We know that the busyness of the season can get in the way of our being able to truly celebrate it… many of you who are reading this may have [...]