I wondered what they thought at the next table. Dr. Waetjen was quite exorcized when he said it: you’ve got to decide which is primary, which gets priority – being or becoming. A non-theologian probably isn’t going to understand that, but I swear, everyone needs to understand it. You can start from that “sin” place I talked about in my last post, that place where you just know there is something wrong with you. If you start there, you’re going... Read more

In writing more on this blog I’ve been finding my voice in a different way. I’ve been a preacher for 20 years. I love preaching. I live for it really, but not doing it for some time I find that in this role, my voice has changed. That happens when you’re a preacher, but it usually happens more slowly. Anyway, I’ve noticed that I’m strangely more optimistic in these posts than I’ve ever been. I’m a Calvinist for crying out... Read more

News cycles being what they are, it seems that the Pope’s encyclical on the environment didn’t get the play it might have if there hadn’t been an eruption of hatred from the racist volcano last Wednesday night in Charleston. That’s how I think of it, an eruption of something that is active and insidious but that can go dormant – if we work at it. But it will take fresh imagination, a different vision of what it means to be... Read more

Do we really have to listen to arguments about whether the confederate flag, (deliberate typo), over South Carolina’s Capitol should come down? It’s a smoke screen. It shouldn’t take up any air time at all. We’ve got more important things to address. Don’t get me wrong; it should definitely come down, but that should’ve been taken care of already. Making it some huge cause now, as though we just noticed how ridiculous it is, trivializes a terrorist act on our... Read more

I just found out I’m preaching again on July 4th weekend. Sure enough every year it rolls around, and even when I’m not installed as the preacher in a particular congregation, I find that I’m asked to sub in for someone on vacation. What do you preach about? Freedom of course. It’s such a juicy subject. The desire for freedom is central to who we are. Remember the old Star Trek episode, “The Menagerie?” The Talosians captured human beings and... Read more

It breaks my heart but I keep doing it. It breaks my heart but I keep on reading the news . . . for a long time every day. I haven’t been doing it forever. Sometimes I’ll go months without really paying attention but there has been something about the mood of society, something about the unrest that compels me to read, to listen these days . . . and it breaks my heart. Let me pick just a sampling... Read more

I preached at a Center for Spiritual Living last Sunday and I learned that the church has a serious image problem. I’m usually game to try and recover that image, to use my voice to gently prod the church in a direction that will offer good news in a way that can be heard, but this experience made me wonder if we can recover. First a word or two about context. I’m a Presbyterian preacher; have been for 20+ years.... Read more

The reader will be forgiven for thinking that “Happify” is a silly name, but having spent some time with the program I’ve come to think of it as whimsical. In the all important field of “branding” these days, it’s important for a name to capture the essence of the product you are offering. On that basis the name works. Happify seeks to deliver happiness. They do so using a series of games, goals and questionnaires which are indeed sometimes whimsical.... Read more

Just back from the Success Summit 3.0 in Boulder, four amazing, heart opening days with business leaders, entertainment leaders, along with students of relationship – relationships among humans, relationship to the presence of God. It was a bit of a Trojan horse for some I’d imagine. We came to redefine success in 2015 and put that new definition into the culture. We found that to be successful we must find the kind of spiritual framework that allows for, or even... Read more