Today marks the 125th Anniversary of the founding of the Evangelical Covenant Church! The Covenant Church is the denomination I am seeking ordination in after I finish seminary. I thought today would be a good day to tell you a little bit about it! Since my relocated to Chicago to study at North Park Theological Seminary many people have asked me why I decided to move. Some wonder why I left at all. Others have questioned why I would choose... Read more

Have a blessed Saint Valentines Day! I thought today I would share an article written by the German Reformer Martin Luther. My wife and I recently read through this together, and we both found a good deal of life in it. I hope you enjoy it, and can take to heart the depth of God’s call to love one another! The Estate of Marriage (selections) by Martin Luthertr. Brandt, from “luther’s works, volume 45.” (Fortress Press, 1962) The world says... Read more

We are all communicators, we can’t avoid it. Our daily interactions at even the most menial level are transmitting messages to others around us. For many people, myself included, this process goes on often without a great deal of thought or concise involvement. I, for one, know that so often I’m not cognizant of the rules that guide the positions and mediums I employ every day to communicate. I have been reading Charles H. Kraft’s Communication theory for the Christian... Read more

A reader and friend recently asked me a question relating to my decision to go to seminary at North Park Theological Seminary. North Park is connected to the Evangelical Covenant Church. Which is a branch off the Pietist movement within the Lutheran Church. I will be posting a lot more about the Covenant Church in the months to come. I would love to here other Covenenaters thoughts on this question! Got a question for you, as a Lutheran now studying... Read more

I have always liked this. Thought you might too Read more

Martin Luther King Jr is remembered today. For many people it’s a difficult holiday to celebrate since there are few established rituals. For me as a Christian, as king was, I like to take time and go to a prayer service for peace and racial reconciliation. It’s important to recognize that the work King gave his life for is still in great need of great men and women to fight against the injustice built in our systems, attitudes and even... Read more

The Gospel reading last Sunday was “the wedding at Cana.” A powerful story about Jesus’ miraculous transformation of water into wine at a wedding feast. You can read the whole thing in John 2:1-11. The icon associated with this story has had a special place in my heart. I bought this icon for my wife just after we got engaged. It has had a place on honor in our home everywhere we’ve lived. I see it every day. The version... Read more

I am a huge coffee geek. I work with coffee, teach coffee, do coffee consulting. Heck I even have a coffee centered blog (If you haven’t seen it check out Mug Life). After many years of trying to practice a contemplative prayer life while working as a Barista, a number of prayers and reflections began to emerge. I kept them mostly to myself, but every once in a while I would tell a friend, “coffee is in itself a pattern... Read more

Today my Church celebrates one of the Great feasts of the Church. The Baptism of Jesus or “Theophany.” Like all Great Christian feasts it points back to the saving work of God through Jesus Christ in his death and resurrection. In the baptism of Christ we see a prefigurement of his death as he enters the water, and a promise of his and our own resurrection in his emersion from the water. I thought it might be fun to take... Read more

Yesterday was the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God in the Catholic Church. If this title for Mary seems funny to you don’t worry. The early church had problems with it too. Just look at what went down at the First Council of Ephesus! Many of us protestants get nervous when we here the title. We think this is used to put Mary on too high a pedestal. Interestingly the term emerged less as a way of exalting Mary but... Read more