Becoming an Attentive Church

“Attention is the rarest and most pure form of generosity” – Simone Weil When I need to get the attention of a room of restless children, I use a simple strategy. I start speaking more softly. I just love how this draws them in to listen and focuses their attention. I believe the Church is […]

COVID-19 and the Wilderness Journey

The Church is traveling through 40 days between Easter and Ascension. This marks a transitional period for the disciples as Jesus prepared them for their mission as Apostles. We have a unique opportunity this Easter season as we journey through COVID-19. God is drawing us deep into relationship with him and calling us to repentance. 40 […]

Cooperating with Covid-19

Tim Keener, Passion Week 2020 How do pain and suffering draw us into God’s Kingdom? A friend recently sent me this quote, “We must cooperate with life as it is, as it comes.” The thought captivated me for several days. A global pandemic is currently life “as it is.” So, I began asking myself, “how […]

Epiphany and the Other

Matthew 2:1-12; Isaiah 60:1-6; & Eph. 3:1-12 Matthew’s ‘Epiphany’ was not just about God manifesting himself to humanity, it was especially about God manifesting himself to the Other. Several years ago, our family, living in France, drove down to Spain during the Christmas holiday to visit some friends living outside Madrid. During that visit we […]

When God’s Story Comes into Our Story

Matthew 1:18-25 *Joseph adopts Jesus’ Story into his life Christmas is over but God’s story is not, and he’s inviting you into it. When God comes into our story, we also come into his. I recently saw a meme on social media that said, “Jesus is not a part of the Christmas Story; Christmas is […]

Spiritual But Not Religious

The Church is Called to Embody a Better Faith Originally Published in Seven Magazine October 2016, please contact for republication. “You’re really a pastor?” he asked, as I tried to place his British accent. “I’m a pastor… really,” I warmly replied. It was another chance encounter in Montreal, an opportunity to learn someone’s story, and […]

Short-Term Missions meets Spiritual Pilgrimage

Evangelicals don’t use the word “pilgrimage” as a paradigm for religious travel, but “pilgrimage” better describes the process of participants going away to be changed, rather than changing those to whom they go.

Water into Wine: How Jesus Moves us from Scarcity to Abundance

January 20, 2019, Second Sunday after Epiphany Readings: Isaiah 62:1-5; Psalm 36:5-10; 1 Corinthians 12:1-11; John 2:1-11 In August 1964, a young man from bustling city of Columbus, Ohio traveled to the home of his fiancé in a country ‘hollar’ (a valley), of northeastern Kentucky to be lawfully wedded at her family home. She wanted a church-wedding, […]

Time and Light, Advent 2018

Last week, I had the chance to be in Prague, and among other things to see is Prague’s famous Astronomical Clock. It is 608 years old (installed in 1410) and it not only tells the time, but also has dials that represent where the sun and moon are as well as how much daylight there will […]

The Five “Scopes” of Scripture

How do we approach Scripture as written documents? How does reading Scripture influence our living and working? Scripture reading (and interpreting & applying), is an important Christian spiritual discipline. But I find that many people struggle to know how to approach scripture, or worse, that they approach it poorly, making it say what they want or […]