Seven Lessons from the Magi

Today marks the end of Christmas and we celebrate Epiphany. Epiphaneia (greek) literally means manifestation. In today’s language, “epiphany” is used to express a sudden realization or breakthrough in thinking. Epiphany also commemorates the visit of the magi (plural form of magus or magician), or commonly called “three kings,” who visited Jesus after his birth. […]

Merry Messy Christmas

Merry Messy Christmas! For the last four weeks our family coached a small group through Advent. We read Scripture and prayed regularly. We also ate a common meal each Sunday night. What have we learned now that it is Christmas? Christmas is for the messy. Living closer to one another, we observed… tired moms and […]

Advent For Advent (the weeks leading up to Christmas), our family always reads a selection of Bible stories from the beginning of the Old Testament up to the birth of Jesus. One passage is always difficult—The near child sacrifice of Abraham and Sarah’s son Isaac. I mean… what a terrible story. How are you supposed […]

Happy Hopeful Halloween

Beyond the silly costumes, haunted houses and trick-or-treating… Halloween is mysteriously about hope. I have a curious relationship with Halloween. Trick-or-treating was a part of my childhood, but not my children’s because it was not really celebrated in France (where 3 or 4 of our children were born and spent their early years). When we […]

Structures and Spirit, Preparing for Growth

It’s the time of year that most local churches are getting into a new groove after the summer lull. At our local parish we’re finding new teachers, getting activities on the calendar and trying to count any missing or hurting sheep. It reminds me of something important — The church is a living, growing thing. […]

How much should I give?

Practicing generosity is an important part of life. Yet, I’ve experienced difficulty on both ends of the giving equation: the giver… and the developer (raising funds). Here are two tools below that may help. Pastor Eugene Cho used the simple but powerful idea of giving “One Day’s Wage” to help alleviate poverty. Using a simple […]

Imagining a bigger Gospel

There’s a neat story tucked away in the Bible about four leprous men (2 Kings 7). The story goes that the city of Samaria, capital of Northern Israel, was besieged by its Assyrian enemy. Being cut off from the outside world, the city began to starve and deteriorated into chaos… These four men were not […]

WWWJD What Wine Would Jesus Drink?

Part 2 In my last post, I asked the question, “What kind of wine did Jesus drink?” As I said then, we really have no reason to think that Jesus drank wine any different from wine today, fermented grape juice at about 9-12% AOC. For many Christians around the world, this question is itself unnecessary, […]

What kind of wine did Jesus drink?

I heard this question again recently, and because it still comes up in some circles, I thought I would give a sincere answer on my blog… What kind of wine did Jesus drink? What was the alcohol content? This could seem straightforward to some, but there are some cultural reasons why it may not […]

Depression in Ministry

Ministering while depressed feels a bit like going to an orchestra concert with earplugs in your ears. Life and ministry go on, but it is not entirely felt or experienced as others might be experiencing it. I remember a time when nothing seemed to calm my difficulty with anxiety. I tried praying more, reading more, […]