It was five minutes before worship, and I was greeting people at the sanctuary entrance. The contemporary service was about to begin when a gentleman who usually frequented our traditional service came through the door. After seeing the stage (drums…
Enneagram is a method to name our motives and choose new habits
Facing a freezing winter morning, a red-hot question began burning inside me. Some 30 community leaders were gathered to spend a day under the wisdom of Suzanne Stabile. She was teaching a boutique Enneagram workshop in Greenwich, Conn., hosted by…
Learning the mixed metaphors of grief, a primary color
“Your father has had a stroke. We are on our way to the hospital.” The text message came from my mother, just as I was finishing a worship service at a youth camp in the mountains of Arkansas. The next…
Oregon is burning while most white Christians deny climate science
The smoke permeates everything. Even with every door and window closed tight. The whole house smells like smoke. This week, Oregon has erupted in wildfires. Nearly a million acres are burning, and unusual winds from the east have blown the…
Reflecting on the effects of 9/11 and the disarray of America foreign policy
Nineteen years ago tomorrow, terrorists directed by Osama bin Laden successfully orchestrated an unforgettable attack that defined the next decade of American life. Hijacking four commercial jets, terrorists flew two into the World Trade Center towers and one into the…
A walking guide to praying in your home
I was reminded of a prayer practice when I read our pastor’s plea for “purposeful prayer for a world that is very much in need of God’s healing.” As the California fires continue destroying homes and lives, 2020’s disastrous news…
How a Muslim beggar taught me about dignity
Perhaps I had grown too accustomed to seeing people dig through the garbage containers at the edge of the street in my residential neighborhood in Semarang, Indonesia. Then, one day I prepared a sermon for the small English-language congregation I…
Let’s call the divorce lawyers for the sick marriage of church and state
In the world of British sociological order, there are five estates: nobility, clergy, middle class, press, and then any other group that can stand up to the other four. In the United States, having rejected the idea of the nobility…
‘The Lapsed’: An ancient church controversy with 2020 implications
We’ve all lapsed from something, haven’t we? If we live long enough, we lapse from all sorts of promises, convictions and ideals we thought we’d never relinquish. COVID-19 has enforced collective lapses from restaurants, concerts, movies and sporting events, not…