Powers and Principalities: A Podcast Conversation

by | Jul 28, 2021 | Uncategorized

Here’s a link to a podcast conversation I had with Mark Ramsey, Executive Director of the Ministry Collaborative/Macedonian Ministry Foundation. It was great to talk with Mark about some of the realities churches face as we move into whatever post-pandemic (and...

Beyond Regathering

by | Jun 8, 2021 | Uncategorized

This post focuses on the life and ministry of congregations. The regathering of our churches for worship and other ministries has been a source of relief, a reason for gratitude, and a cause for celebration. During a long season of necessary isolation from one...

Thresholds, In-Between, Paradox, and Liminality

by | May 15, 2021 | Uncategorized

I lay down in the early afternoon of a sunny and cool Chicago Saturday. Anita and I were with our son, Eliot, and his fiancé, Tatyana. Later that day, the four of us would join several of Eliot’s and Tatyana’s friends for a relaxed informal dinner party at the home of...

Telling the Story (Stories) of the Last Year

by | Apr 28, 2021 | Uncategorized

Photo by Eugenio Mazzone on Unsplash How do we tell the story of the last year or so? One way is to focus on a series of disruptions in public health, justice, education, economics, and politics. They were earthquakes that shook our foundational confidence, and the...

Gifts We Need and Can Give

by | Apr 22, 2021 | Uncategorized

Rodin It—the deaths, other losses, and griefs of the pandemic, racial polarization, economic devastation, political division, and “Christian” nationalism—has been and is hard, really hard. We probably won’t know how difficult things have been until later, when we can...

Holy Saturday

by | Apr 3, 2021 | Uncategorized

Dead, forsaken Jesus. Eerie silence from heaven to the grave. Smug Empire. Self-satisfied religious Establishment. Horrified, hiding, denying, and betraying men break their vows to follow. Trembling, tenacious women stay true through the end.   In God’s great...