I confess that things got a little bit nutty in our worship service yesterday. We’ve come to expect the Sunday after the first intense cold snap in KC will be a bit of a challenge for our church. Twenty-five or thirty homeless folks who are part of our congregation will be coming in from the cold, and they are often a little out of control that day. Some come because they are a part of our church, and they want... Read more
So the crop of Mouseketeer’s from the early nineties was fairly fertile. Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Keri Russell, Christina Aguilera, and Ryan Goslin. But the lesser known story of one former Disney teen star is pretty interesting. This is from an article in The New York Times: But Teo Bishop, while keeping up a career in pop music, accomplished something less predictable and altogether curiouser. Beginning about three years ago, he began a rise to prominence in the Pagan community. Then,... Read more
Last Friday before Thanksgiving, so just to get you in the mood … enjoy your Friday everyone! Read more
At Redemption Church where I pastor, we are in the midst of a preaching series called The Communion of Saints. This past week we studied the life of St. Francis of Assisi. Most of us know at least a little something about St. Francis. Born to a wealthy merchant father, Francis grew up a child of privilege. He was a magnetic personality and by the time he was a young man he was somewhat of a ringleader among Assisi’s younger... Read more
The kingdom of God is like a garbage dump … trash and refuse as far as the eye can see; where poverty and pollution rule and reign. Until a few men of great imagination started picking through the garbage, and where everyone else saw useless trash, they saw musical instruments. People of great ingenuity beat the garbage into violins, cellos, trumpets and clarinets and taught some of the poorest kids on the planet how to play music. Now, everywhere they... Read more
Stephen Colbert, who (when in character) calls himself America’s most famous Catholic, spoke at the Al Smith Dinner last month. Colbert, who maintains a friendship with Cardinal Timothy Dolan, brought his usual irreverent humor for the crowd, including a few zingers for the Pope. Here’s hoping that one difference between Pope Francis and his predecessor is a sense of humor. Something tells me that Pope Francis would have like Colbert’s shtick, assuming the bit translates well into Spanish. If you... Read more
I confess that I want to like Zombie movies, but as yet have not watched any. I watched the old Donald Sutherland Invasion of the Body Snatchers, is that considered to be a Zombie flick? See, I’m not even qualified to talk about the genre. I confess that sometime in my near future, I’m going to go on a serious Zombie kick and catch up. It seems like the best critique of capitalism/consumerism happening in popular culture. I confess that... Read more
I’ve been thinking about the story Jon Bowles told our staff earlier this week. Jon’s church, Beggar’s Table, brought in a poet named Kevin Coval. Coval is kind of a big deal, and is an unlikely person to do a reading in a Christian church. First of all, he’s Jewish. He’s also profane, and a little shocking at times. But Coval is part of an emerging art from that I think could be important. Mostly, he is leaning into the... Read more
Yesterday our church staff spent the morning with my friend Jon Bowles, the author of the book Art and Faith: Reclaiming the Artistic Essence of the Church. We met up at Beggar’s Table Church and Gallery to see the place and have Jon lead a discussion on what he’s been thinking and writing about of late. Jon’s church, Beggar’s Table, is a pretty unique place. They are situated in the Crossroads district of Kansas City. It’s an area of old... Read more
I confess that my first full time church staff position was at a church in Lee’s Summit, MO called Lakeland Community Church. I started there in 1996. Yesterday was my first time to preach again at Lakeland since sometime in 1998. I confess that before I jumped into my sermon I was introducing myself to the congregation, and talking about how I had preached my first sermon ever at that Lakeland. The problem was that I was ad-libbing, and I... Read more
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