The coming of the federal holiday for Juneteenth has occurred. This date is the day that Federal troops arrived in Texas at the end of the Civil War on June 19th, 1865 to proclaim the Emancipation Proclamation, officially declaring all enslaved people free. As I sit here today I wonder where I fit in on Juneteenth. Should I celebrate it? Is it wrong for me to do so? Other questions about Juneteenth I have heard are “We have July 4... Read more
We are excited to finally be together in our new studio near San Antonio, Texas. Join us as we ask hard questions. Hear all points of view, and give honest and open dialogue to some of the hardest questions and most sensitive topics facing the American Church. Join us on Tuesday, July 13 as we begin anew! We are excited for this third year of ministry. The Fire is Lit, Here Comes the Smoke! Read more
In my time as a Pastor, I was also a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. One of the things I found absolutely disturbing was the lack of knowledge by pastors in regards to mental health. I think the most disturbing part was not those pastors didn’t know, they didn’t WANT to know. I found the farther I got into my pastoral career the more I realized the massive stigma with mental health. When asking about what pastors thought of mental... Read more
One thing the Carmina Gadelica has taught me over and over is that prayer is multifaceted. This particular incantation is interesting because this is a prayer said over the cattle of which a farmer is pastoring. This shows us the deep regard held by Celtic Christians for the environment around them. They understood the world not just as a thing to be subdued by humans. The world was a place where the very spirit of God could be found. The... Read more
How should we act as Christians? For me, I distinctly remember my first interaction with a Christian Church. It was a Latter Day Saints Church that would bring a bus around our trailer park every Sunday, inviting parents and children to their church. This particular Sunday, my parents were still sleeping Saturday off so I made the decision to hop on the bus with some friends. The people on the bus seemed so nice and welcoming, and we were met... Read more
In our modern era, there seems to be a fear of death. More so than just fear of dying, but maybe a fear of not being remembered. Because we fear we may cease to exist in form and memory, we cling very tight to the mortal coil. The purpose of this writing isn’t to somehow show the fear of dying is unchristian. In truth, the fear of death is a very natural instinct. What can be dangerous is the fear... Read more
I have found that when I say that Jesus was not a Christian, I get the oddest looks from those within the faith. It is almost as If I stated that Jesus is not God. I assure you nothing could be farther from the truth, I am firmly rooted in the deity of Jesus Christ. So why the odd looks? I think it has a lot to do with one very simple reality: Christians do not understand the context of... Read more
I think one of the most misunderstood aspects of the Christian faith in the Western World is prayer. It has become a literal litany of wishes and desires, completely devoid of the closeness and conversation with the Divine. We have simply made the prayer a one way conversation of things we want. We “name it and claim it” without even really understanding what “it” is. Very few take a portion of prayer time in silence to hear what the Spirit... Read more
Pro Life is a Spiritual Stance, Anti-Abortion is a political one Read more
This is a discourse on a subject that is very rarely looked at theologically in the western world. Most Christian theologians believe in angels because they are found in scripture. Since the dawning of the Enlightenment, the church has kept its distance from both the spiritual and the mystical. Since angels are spiritual beings on our plane of existence, the modern church has decided the subject is either too mystical or too non-scientific to explore. As we stated earlier, the... Read more
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