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 […]

Prayers for Living with Illness

Last Sunday I woke up early and before I even opened my eyes, I began praying for the sick. My wife had been dealing with some new health issues and I eventually got up and wrote these prayers for use in worship. I was reminded how anemic our theology of sickness and healing often is. Why […]

Sharing the Gospel through Ashes

Ash Wednesday, Lent, and telling the Gospel Story through Liturgy “These ashes remind us that we all need Jesus.” We passed around a small bowl of ashes to the children and let the children touch them and make observations. We pointed out how the ashes came from something alive but are now just ashes and dust (ashes […]