At first, I found myself internally resisting; seemed like some publicity stunt just to get Angelina Jolie’s face on television again. And I’m sure that some of this is hype for ratings as well as padding to Anderson Cooper’s resume. But I’m pushing myself past the cynicism and making the decision to blog about today [...]

Posted in church thoughts No Comments »

I started this post as a brief sampler, and it “grew in the telling,” as Tolkien said about writing the Lord of the Rings. Maybe your comments will help me see which are the most interesting to you, and therefore the ones I will want to make time to write more about.

I continue to meet [...]

Posted in NFC, church thoughts, quaker 4 Comments »

Last Friday night, my wife was murdered by my pregnant lover. I was DEVASTATED. That’s all I could say.
Of course, when the truth all came out, I was just using Bitsy. She was after my trust fund, but little did SHE know that my grandfather had put a clause in his will to give me [...]

Posted in church thoughts, family No Comments »

I’ve been trying to write this post since Sunday night, but I’m having a difficult time doing it. If you’re reading it, I must have finally finished it.
I witnessed a beautiful thing Sunday night as Newberg Friends gathered for business again. We’ve been struggling as a community to come to unity, struggling to figure out [...]

Posted in NFC, church thoughts, quaker 5 Comments »

(I received an e-mail today, concerned as they read my blog that perhaps one of the visions for the future of NFC is to become an emergent church. As I responded, I realized that what I had written might be helpful for more people, so I’ve adapted my answer and post it here.)
The first thing [...]

Posted in NFC, church thoughts 5 Comments »

I can be an obsessive person. After all kinds of input at this conference, more prolific blogging and journaling than I’ve had in forever, I found myself at the Hartford airport pulling out Doug Pagitt’s book, Preaching Re-imagined. Kathy looked at me and said, “You’re putting MORE stuff in your head? Aren’t you on overload [...]

Posted in bible/theology, books, church thoughts, quaker 12 Comments »

Miroslav spoke today about his latest book, “Free of Charge : Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace” (and follow Corey’s example, listen to me, and read this book). As so many have said, it is so important what and how we think about God. It’s the stripped down versions of faith, he [...]

Posted in bible/theology, church thoughts, volf conversation 1 Comment »

Last night I suggested that maybe Quakers have something to offer to the conversation about the real presence of God in our midst. We had a chance to write down questions to ask Miroslav today, and mine got asked: Is there space for us to relate with God, on a deeper level than just entering [...]

Posted in bible/theology, church thoughts, quaker, volf conversation 4 Comments »

It’s been so great to hear AJ and Kathy and Steve say how much they appreciate Volf and love his spirit and his mind. I’m being reminded again how influential he’s been on my life, how much my classes with him, how chatting over coffee after class, how his books have shaped me.
I think I’ve [...]

Posted in bible/theology, church thoughts, quaker, volf conversation 8 Comments »

Is it the pastor’s responsibility to provoke? Are we supposed to challenge, prick, prod, and push people into places of discomfort in their spiritual lives?
Miroslav basically answered this as a “yes,” but I loved how he qualified that. “What do I do,” he said, “when I’ve written this book Exclusion and Embrace…and I find some [...]

Posted in bible/theology, church thoughts, volf conversation No Comments »