My plan for today’s blog entry was to do some fancy link sort of thing so that all of you could hear a podcast from the Taizé Community that I found especially moving. See, I subscribe the regular podcasts from Taizé, but I am not the most savvy ipod user, so I didn’t realize that once I listen to a podcast it goes away.  I think.  Anyway, I can’t find it, and even if I could, I think we all... Read more

I left the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship meeting in Charlotte convinced, if I wasn’t before, that I don’t really fit the typical mold of Baptist pastor. For one thing, the questions I got most frequently were not questions about my work or my views on the future of the church or the state of things at Calvary.  Oh, no, most folks had questions about my hairstyle and my glasses, confirming my suspicions that the way I look makes me kind of... Read more

Sometimes the sun shines and people smile and flowers lean toward the sun . . . soft breezes carry the scent of jasmine and the faint echoes of music remind you that somebody not too far away from where you are right this minute is reveling in the slow pace of summer. Sometimes all of that and more swirls around you and you suspect you should be smiling along with everyone else, donning your sunglasses and happily anticipating another hot... Read more

I will not wait until 11:30 tonight to blog. I don’t care if I have absolutely nothing to say. I don’t care if I have pretty much convinced myself it would be more prudent to live the day looking for riveting topics about which to write. After all, this exercise—blogging every day—is a matter of discipline—you know, writing for the sake of writing.  And, anyway, surely there is some deep kernel of wisdom laying dormant in my psyche, something rich... Read more

Disclaimer: this post isn’t really about the Bible. It’s actually about a meeting I attended today, the Pastors and Scholars Studio, and a book I am currently reading: Tracy Chevalier’s Remarkable Creatures.  It could be that there is, in fact, a connection between the two.  It could also be that it’s Day 14 of my crazy attempt to blog for 30 days straight, and I am rather scraping the bottom of the barrel. Today in the Pastors and Scholars Studio... Read more

And . . . it starts. I am in Charlotte, NC this week for the General Assembly of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship—a really big meeting of Baptists that happens once a year.  As you might imagine with a Baptist convention in town, Charlotte is currently seeing quite a bit of raucous partying, trash in the streets, and scantily clad women. Just kidding . . . geez! I came a few days early for some pre-convention meetings, but I knew today... Read more

If you happen to have seen me driving around in my van laughing to myself the reason (lately, anyway) is not my compromised mental state, though that would be a very good guess. No, I’ve been listening to Liberty, Garrison Keillor’s latest Lake Wobegon novel, which chronicles the trials and tribulations of Clive Bunson, head of the Lake Wobegon Fourth of July committee, as he tries to lead the committee in the wake of the growing success and international attention... Read more

True, it’s almost 11:30 p.m., but it’s not midnight yet so I’m hoping I can get this blog entry in just under the wire.  Today has been a long day, starting with the rush to get out of the house for a week-long absence, then the craziness of Sunday mornings at church, then a road trip to Charlotte, and finally, now, sitting still.  A few reflections on the day: Sundays can be days of highest joy or days of deepest... Read more

In my ongoing quest to become a more cultured individual, this week I attended a performance of A Man of No Importance at the Keegan Theater.  It’s true that I was trying to get more cultured and all that, but it’s also true that two amazing colleagues and friends of mine, Deb Gottesman and Buzz Mauro have roles in the play, so I really went initially to support them.  (And to seem like I am way more cultured than I... Read more