There are several authors that I have struggled to connect with over the years.  Barbara Brown Taylor is one of them – until her most recent book, An Altar in the World, I had never actually finished one of her books.  Its nothing against her writing personally, but it just never seemed to connect with [...]

As I shared in my message this morning about Shiphrah and Puah from Exodus 1, as we journey in our callings, as we respond with courage in the face of the challenges that come before us, we are reminded by Shiphrah and Puah that we do not journey alone.  We have our sisters and brothers [...]

There have been few Sundays in my time as a pastor here or in Sioux Falls that I looked forward to with greater anticipation and excitement than October 11.  Our Be the Church Service Sunday was setting up to be a wondrous experience of God at work within us and through us.  I was excited [...]

What a wonderful Easter celebration in worship yesterday.  It was truly a blessed time of gathering together as God’s people to celebrate our risen Savior.  Thank you all for being a part of it.  Our focus yesterday in worship was on John 20:1-18 as Jesus appeared to Mary of Magdala in the garden.  It was [...]

A friend of mine sent me a link to a story called “Amish Hackers”.  Its a pretty long article, so be sure you have some time to get through it.  Anyway, its a discussion of the complex relationship that Amish people have with technology.  Its a fascinating read, especially if you have ever lived in [...]

The fifth great end of the church is “The Promotion of Social Righteousness.”  In many ways, this might be the hardest to do of all the ones that we have talked about to this point.  A lot of what we have talked about can be done without getting our hands dirty (figuratively and literally).  While [...]

A member of PCW lent me his copy of Tribes a few weeks ago and I finally got through it yesterday afternoon.  It is not that it is a difficult or a long read, but I just simply hadn’t had the opportunity to sit down and work through it. As I read the book, I [...]

Well, I am about 2 hrs past finishing The Shack, so thoughts are not entirely coherent as they would be (hopefully) after a few more days to ponder.  But here we go.  I honestly went into the book expecting to not like it.  As one who has a hard time with a lot of what [...]

Bruce Reyes-Chow, the current moderator of the PCUSA General Assembly, posted an excellent reflection on his moderator blog upon this video about “Generation We” This video highlights the reality of how the demographics and power base within the United States will change dramatically over the next twenty years.  While the last 30 years or so [...]

Moving into 1 Chronicles after finishing 2 Kings, we come into the first nine chapters to find name after name after name. It is chapters like these that people who volunteer to read in worship often dread. Names like Azrikam, Azmaveth, Jehoiarib, and so forth often trip people up. It is very easy to skip [...]