This week, Richard Rohr’s meditations are all about the monastic and contemplative life. He offers this on September 22nd, , “Parker Palmer writes, “The function of contemplation in all its forms is to penetrate illusion and help us to touch reality.” I almost became a religious monastic with the Catholic orders of St. Benedict or the Redemptorists. I was 17 when I had my first “call” experience. If you have never received a call to the ministry, it is... Read more
Autumn is Here Next week, we will be celebrating our youngest child’s 15th birthday. We have four kids, and each birth was different in its own special way, each pregnancy a season of transition. Having children requires a couple to go through a season of transition. For us, it was one child, then two, then three and finally four. On the other end of this, we have said goodbye to the childhood of two of our children and now are... Read more
Moderation as a practice is a practice of patience, maturity and time. It is a practice that when done intentionally, matures as we mature. John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church once stated that “buying, selling, and drinking of liquor, unless absolutely necessary, were evils to be avoided.” This statement followed a period known as the “Gin Craze” in the early 18th century where the production and consumption of gin skyrocketed in England. Wesley would be one of the earliest... Read more
Shame As a clinician, I deal with a lot of emotions on a daily basis. No emotion is so insidious as is shame. My client last week brought up the idea of “landfill emotions” but he could not exactly explain what he meant by it or where he heard it. Upon some digging, I found this: “Shame is the landfill emotion. It’s not organic, like joy. It was dumped there by someone else” (Burroughs, 2012). I cannot agree more... Read more
Is the Seven Mountain Mandate Christian? A troubling theology or theory is plaguing our Christian landscape right now, potentially undermining the genuine efforts Christians have been making for thousands of years since Jesus left us. In this post, I want to explore the Seven Mountains theory, some of the theological history behind it and demonstrate how it undermines the Acts 2 mission and misleads our politics. Begun in 1975, The Seven Mountain Mandate, also Seven Mountains Mandate, 7M, or Seven Mountains Dominionism, is... Read more
The Spiritual Practice of You September is Self-Improvement Month YOU If you are reading this right now, pause and meditate on these words: “YOU are God’s Beloved.” “YOU are wanted.” “YOU are loved.” Now if you are in a place emotionally or mentally where this does not feel true, then change the word YOU to I and use this a trailing mantra: I am wanted, I am, I. When you come to the I, understand that that is you... Read more
Connections with people within and without our church walls is vital for the life of our church. Has our inability to connect with the world around us sealed the death nail in our church coffin? How do we ministry with rather than for people In preacher school, we learn about missiology or the academic study of Christian mission history and methodology. My study was taught by an amazing woman preacher by the name of (Dr.) Diane Lobody and she had... Read more
I had Coffee With Jesus recently, it had been a minute, and we needed to catch up. After our usual pleasantries, we ordered our coffees, mine black, like Goth black and for Jesus, this time was an Americano, he said he with a wink that he liked the way the water made it taste more like coffee. It is beginning to look a lot like pumpkin spice season up here in the Northern parts of America and leaves are... Read more
Religious radicalization is a global concern and a threat to traditional religious ideologies. In the religion class I teach at the Community College, I explain to my students that the world religion comes from the Latin word, re ligio, which means to bring together. What then has religion become today when we are so divided along simple expressions of belonging as suggested by Jesus such as “love your neighbor?” or “do unto others”. Why have we planted our subjective faith... Read more
Suprisinginly, Jesus was Jewish and he liked to eat. He was not bougee either, he could throw down a feast with a few loaves of bread and some fish. Jesus engages in 10 dinner parties over the course of the Gospel of Luke. Along the way, he teaches us not only how to eat, but also how to embrace the spiritual practices of enthusiasm Connections, Joy and Hospitality. This week, I want to look at how Jesus embraced the... Read more
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