Category Archives: Uncategorized

We are still within the Octave of All Saints, which is a period generally known as All Hallowstide. There are several lesser observances during that octave like Saints of the Reformation Era, or Saints of the Old Testament, that help to keep our focus on giving thanks for those who have kept the faith aliveContinue reading “Saints Anonymous: Remembering the People Who Keep the Coffee Percolating and the Church Alive”

(Finding meaning and freshness in the liturgical ‘in-between’) Somewhere around the second or third Sunday after Pentecost —just after the last “Alleluia” from Eastertide has faded and the clergy have dutifully packed away the white vestments — there comes a curious feeling among church folk. It’s the same feeling you get when you’ve put awayContinue reading “The Long Green Season: Surviving and Thriving in Ordinary Time”

It is a truth universally acknowledged (by clergy, at least) that the word “yes” is one of the most powerful tools in ministry — and one of the most dangerous. Parish life, after all, runs on a steady diet of “yes”: yes to baptisms, yes to funerals, yes to committee meetings, and yes to someone’sContinue reading “The Pastoral Art of Saying “No” (Gently) : How to Set Holy Boundaries in Ministry Without Losing Compassion”

On Incarnational Ministry in the Five-Minute Conversations of Daily Life There’s a small store near my parish — one of those places where the coffee is perpetually just on the edge of lukewarm, the lottery machine is always chirping like a happy cricket, and the owner knows every customer by name, shoe size, and preferredContinue reading “The Theology of Small Talk at the Corner Store”

All Saints’ Day always sneaks up on me like that one parishioner who can move absolutely silently through the church hall and suddenly appear behind you asking where the extra coffee urns are kept. One minute it’s Thanksgiving; the next minute the calendar gently taps us on the shoulder and whispers, “Ahem… it’s time toContinue reading “All Saints — Remembering All the Saints”

There are moments in life when holiness sneaks up on you. Sometimes it’s in the hush of the church before morning prayer, or in the solemn beauty of a Bach chorale. And sometimes — heaven help us — it’s when you are knee-deep in laundry that appears to have bred in the night. Having spentContinue reading “The Psalms of Laundry Folding: Finding Holiness in the Spin Cycle”

Dear reader, you know that my last two weeks has involved an extended stay in hospital. The initial Doctor had ordered absolute bed rest. Within 8 hours, I had given orders to my sister, and found myself in bed with phone, iPad, laptop, and iPad keyboard — everything that I needed to be able toContinue reading “Theology of the To-Do List: What God Might Say About Our Obsession with Productivity”

Today I finally go home from my extended hospital stay. I know that there is not a thing in the refrigerator, and so the first stop on the way will have to be at the grocery store to re-stock. It’s funny that such a simple stop could become something that I would so look forwardContinue reading “The Theology of Grocery Carts: On the sacred art of returning carts (or not), and how small acts of courtesy build community”

There is a line I’ve used more than once in sermons, pastoral visits, and the occasional hospital corridor ramble: “Sometimes the grace of God needs skin on it.” What I mean, of course, is that God’s mercy, love, and tenderness often arrive not in thunderclaps or angelic choruses (though I wouldn’t object to a cherubContinue reading “Grace with Skin On — Stories of Compassion Found in Unlikely Places”

Like my father before me, I have always been built rather close to the meal table. There are few things I enjoy more than pulling up a chair among friends to share food, laughter, and the sort of fellowship that requires a second helping. With that confession now shared, I must tell you that duringContinue reading “Why the Church Potluck Is the True Eighth Sacrament: Grace in Casseroles and Community Tables”