I just finished reading Bossypants—Tina Fey’s thoughts about life and a lot of other things.  I started out reading the book for sermon research—no, really—because we’re doing a series this coming Epiphany that involves improv comedy.  And I won’t ruin the excitement by telling you any more, so I guess you’ll have to come to church every week starting January 1…. Tina Fey, as you know, is extremely funny in a sharp-witted kind of way.  This quality makes her book... Read more

It’s that time of year again and this time EVERYONE’S excited.  In a few days we’ll be leaving for Preacher Camp, the seventh year in a row of collaborative sermon planning with really incredible colleagues.  I’m proud to say that I was one of the founders of Preacher Camp (also known as Homipalooza) along with Jim Somerville (how smart was I???). Here’s how it happened. Jim (who was then pastor of First Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. and has since abandoned... Read more

Read an article I wrote for the Alban Institute’s Congregations magazine. Read more

Calvary Unplugged: What Is the Bible? We’ve been making our way through a list of basic questions about our faith and practice around here lately…why?  Well, because it’s always good to revisit the things we assume everyone knows or thinks but probably most of us are wondering about.  This summer worship series, Calvary Unplugged, is giving us a unique opportunity to talk amongst ourselves in the context of worship, to revisit some of these topics, and to hear from each... Read more

Calvary Unplugged: What Is Worship? There are 13 folks signed up to leave October 8th for our second Calvary trip to El Salvador. Just this past week, on Wednesday night, the group met to talk about making firm plans. Organizing the discussion was (are you surprised?) Carol Blythe, who was one of the participants on the last trip. Truthfully, Carol’s observations and advice were helpful, but I had to laugh as she described what we would expect on the Sunday... Read more

We’re calling it “Unplugged,” but week one felt more like “Unhinged” to me.  It seemed like a good idea when we first thought of it…to move out of the sanctuary into a smaller, more informal room for a few weeks of Sunday worship this summer, but I confess I’m having a little bit of trouble adjusting. The original thought was that it’s never a bad idea to mix things up, try something new, get out of regular patterns, right?  Given... Read more

Calvary Unplugged: What Is the Church? As many of you know, I am not so interested in sports.  That’s probably the biggest understatement of the morning.  So it may seem strange to you that I want to begin this morning talking about sports.  To my credit, I do live with a few individuals who eat, sleep, and breathe sports, so I know a little bit.  And while I think in general it’s a bad idea to talk about things you... Read more

I have written about this before, but a few thoughts to begin today:  I have this thing with words.  They sometimes lodge themselves in my brain and won’t leave until I write them down.  This doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m all-consumed by the ideas the words represent; it just means there are some thoughts floating around, asking to be expressed.   For example, I was distracted this morning with the image of darkness, or sadness, leaning in over the stretchy cords of... Read more

One of the best parts of international travel is the way it can submerge you in a context totally different from your own, an experience that is usually really uncomfortable but offers some great perspective if you let it. Among my recent adventures in Southeast Asia I had the opportunity to visit the country of Cambodia.  There are oh-so-many things I could write about that experience; my visit to Cambodia was definitely a high point of the trip.  One thing... Read more

Since I work in Chinatown, D.C., it only seemed right to pay a visit to a sister Chinatown…in Kuala Lumpur.  Lonely Planet says that Chinatown, KL is best experienced after dark, so I took their advice and set out on an adventure last night.  First order of business: taking the KL monorail two stops.  It really was like riding at Disneyland…quiet, clean, air-conditioned.  Impressive. After exiting the monorail stop we made our way toward the main street in Chinatown, which... Read more