My career as a bully was short-lived and thankfully so. I was probably 13 when I decided to try pushing around a kid a year or two younger but half my size. I figured he’d […]
Category: Mission
The three-step process to justice
We are living during a time where there are repeated calls for justice. That’s good, but it’s not enough. And I’m worried that the current emotional fervor will be wasted and the opportunity lost for […]
Social distancing & the call to holiness
We’ve been in a weird time where our culture has required us to separate ourselves from one another. At the same time, we’ve been incredibly focused on cleanliness. As a hospital chaplain, I wander all […]
Psalm 84
A rendering of Psalm 87, which surprisingly lists Israel’s ancient enemies as being born in Zion, God’s home city, including them among his people.
All my fountains are in you
A surprising hymn about Israel’s ancient enemies being born in Zion.
Psalm 67
A rendering of Psalm 67, which moves us from a desire for a small, me-sized blessing to a global, God-sized blessing for all people.
Prayer that gets me out of myself
“Blessed to be a blessing.” It’s a bit of a Christian cliché, but it’s true nonetheless. It gets at the heart of what God is doing in the world and of how we participate in […]
The birth of King Jesus & how we celebrate Christmas
My Sri Lankan friend Prabo Mihindukulasuriya has the most amazing name ever. He also has keen insight. And he shares the following words about the birth of Jesus — as King — and how it […]
The God Hat
How do people react when you wear your God Hat?
The Romans Road revised
When I was a teenager, I was taught what is called the Romans Road as a way to explain to others why and how we enter into a relationship with God through Jesus. At the […]
Why we should do our good deeds publicly
There are a lot of things Jesus said that rarely get repeated and a handful that get repeated often. Among the often-repeated is this: Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others […]
Seven reasons why I’m a conservationist
When I was growing up, environmentalists were the enemy. They loved the earth and hated God. At least, that’s what I was told. It wasn’t totally untrue, because somehow there had come to be a […]
A return to neighborliness
I didn’t vote for Donald Trump and I didn’t participate in the Women’s Day marches, but it’s essential to me that I am in neighborly relationships with both sets of people who did. Neighborliness requires […]
If the church isn’t a community, it’s nothing
The church exists to be a sign of the breaking in of the kingdom of God into a world of torn apart relationships. The church does not exist to sing songs; to listen to sermons; to […]
Prophets & comedians
Can a comedian or a poet save the world? Back in April 2016, U2’s Bono suggested that the best way to combat terrorism isn’t with bombs, but with laughter. He said, “Don’t laugh. I think comedy […]
The importance of anger
Some baristas are sages, masters of coffee and poignant tattoos. A barista at a cafe I used to frequent had a tattoo with the words “the upside of anger” wildly emblazoned on his forearm. And […]
The gospel on a mountain bike
The text came last night: “Be ready at 8:30.” It was ominous, but in a promising sort of way. So, morning came. I dressed, took kids to school, and got my bike ready. My friend […]
Why do pastors need coaches?
It was just the first week of pastoral ministry when it hit me: I had no idea what I was doing. I’d preached a few sermons, but not weekly. I’d led a few meetings, but no […]
Pastor of the playground, or How to join God in the work He's doing in the world
I was listening to a friend talk about the frustrations of being an elementary school recess duty. In doing her job, she spent most of her time trying to enforce playground rules, which meant she was […]
From Bible reading to Bible living
Followers of Jesus have always had a sense that our Bible reading ought to lead to a change in the way we live our lives. We are followers, after all, and following has action at […]
When God dumps out your toy box … it must be time to play!
You can always tell what toys my kids are into, because they’re all over the house. I do a lot of cleaning up of the toys behind my kids. But they just keep dumping them out again. […]
Will I love God's baby as much as my own?
The book of Genesis is about babies. And as we read, we discover having babies is rough business. Abraham and Sarah are promised babies. Lots of babies. But when it comes down to it, getting […]
What does your sign say?
When our youngest was four, he was the only non-reading member in a household of readers. And he knew it. So, he decided that he wanted to know what all these words around him meant. When […]
St. Francis & the whole gospel for the whole person
One of my favorite characters from history is St. Francis. He and I share the same birthday, the same Lord, and the same desire to live missionally in all aspects of our lives. Granted, he […]
A wider view of the Fall leads to a deeper engagement in mission
For most of my life, I viewed the primary thing wrong in the world as sin, particularly a brokenness in our individual human relationships with God. The most important thing, then, was to get people […]
Learning your neighbor's language
I lived in Canada for five years. It’s a beautiful and friendly country that I am extremely fond of. But never during those five years did I forget that I was in a foreign country. […]
Of Jesus, flowers, and same-sex weddings
The court cases are adding up. People, often Evangelical Christians, are catching flak for not being willing to provide a service to same-sex couples for their weddings. We’ve had bakers, photographers, and more recently florists who […]
Of volcanoes and living missionally in a post-Christian world
We have lava in our backyard. I’m not talking about the red rocks that people people use for landscaping. I’m talking about the bedrock that Bend is built on — and there it is, sticking […]
Learning the Jesus way to be missional
When I was in college, I started writing a short play based on the Zacchaeus story. There was a man in our church named Bill who stood at an awesome 6’10” and I thought it […]
Sports, idolatry, and mission
The Incarnation. It’s a topic for sermons each December. God takes on flesh in Jesus and enters into our circumstance in the humblest of ways in order to save us. It’s one of the most […]