I have already and will continue to throughout Lent put up some worship materials on the page “Lent 2013” under the Worship Resources heading at the top of the page. I am especially exited about Lenten Promise Cards, something I would like to see at Ash Wednesday services and during the first weeks of Lent [...]
Can we imagine a church where play and imagination are seen as serious spiritual disciplines? I did training last year in Godly Play. If you’re not familiar, Godly Play is an interactive storytelling method that focused on children’s innate relationship with God. That makes it sound boring… Godly Play tells biblical stories using playful objects [...]
Today I begin my final semester of seminary. I’m not sure how I feel about that. Well, I mean I have multiple feelings going on. I’m taking some cool courses this semester, so I’m excited about that. Job hunting is a bit stressful. Trying to get my calendar in order is proving to be exceedingly [...]
Advent is weird in higher education. Good weird but still weird. Advent officially begins when we are in the last swings of class and start prepping for finals but officially ends after we have left for the semester. So the question is, when does Advent/Christmas begin for college and all higher ed students? At my [...]
This Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent. Again. Isn’t it strange that every year we take the beautiful story that many of us have been told all our lives and that we consider very familiar and try to make it strange and new? I can’t be the only person who thinks this is weird. [...]
I live in New Jersey, and I have never felt more like I live in New Jersey than this week. I nestled into my apartment last Sunday afternoon expecting things to be normal by Tuesday afternoon. I have been through tornados, snow storms, and ice storms. It’s a matter of preparing and waiting it out [...]
Below is the sermon I preached earlier this month at the CPM meeting where I was certified ready to receive a call. I got great feedback, and if I preach this again I will tweak some things. For now, I have kept it as I preached it. Will you pray with me? Holy Spirit, come [...]
Yesterday the committee overseeing my ordination process certified me ready to receive a call. Now I can start writing the long resume form my denomination uses for everyone looking for ministry jobs, and basically I can start formally looking for jobs really soon. I know about the realities of finding ministry jobs in the current [...]
5. Social media is not for everyone or for everything. Individuals and communities need to know what they’re going for and what medium or social media platform will be best for that. If you are looking to streamline communication between staff people, Twitter is not the place to do that. Google Docs might be a [...]
4. You can’t control everything, but you can be part of the conversation. At the social media discussion at PC(USA)’s General Assembly one lady was concerned that someone outside of the church was posting about a random mission trip not associated with the church or their denomination. Recently a youth group leader told me with [...]