Clergy have been called many things through the ages. We are the “chief among sinners,” after all. In some ways my own ordained ministry has been guided by the wisdom of my graduate advisor at Duke Divinity School, Bishop Will…
Get ready: There’s a second wave of church conflict coming
A pastor who works to encourage other pastors recently posted on Facebook that he personally knows 28 pastors who have left the ministry in the past year. That’s one graphic illustration of what the season of our discontent has wrought…
After talking with Bishop Curry, my goals for this summer are love, church, service and kindness
I love summer. In fact, I love everything about summer. Last summer didn’t seem like normal as we battled the effects of COVID. But this year, as we get ready for the long, hot days, some things come to mind….
Advocacy group that fought COVID church closures in California awarded $2.1 million for legal fees
The conservative Christian advocacy group that fought the state of California’s mandates on church closures during the coronavirus pandemic will be reimbursed by the state for more than $2 million in legal fees. Separate settlements were announced between the state…
Rock the boat, don’t tip the boat over
There is a lot of time to think while sitting in the hospital — at least intermittently between all the doctor’s visits and texting the grandparents and friends about what is going on with the kiddo. The body is amazing…
Clergy mental health is a choice between life and death
I took a leave of absence in 2020, and it saved my life. I serve as pastor of a church in Oklahoma, and it’s been a heck of a year. Even before the pandemic, we navigated painful staff changes and…
It’s time to live like mystics
I spent the pandemic lamenting things I could not do — no restaurants, no movie theaters, no museums. I was excited when I got to go back to my favorite Mexican place, the neighborhood movie theater and the Metropolitan Museum…
How Karl Barth speaks to our post-pandemic needs
The pandemic has changed us. At a minimum, the last 15 months have awakened us to our vulnerabilities. So as the post-pandemic world begins to peek over the horizon, we’ve also become painfully aware of the deepening and widening division…
Can these bones live? The pandemic as portal
This past Sunday of Pentecost, one of the texts was the vision of the valley of dry bones brought to life in Ezekiel 37. Before the fall of the nation of Israel to Babylon — the nation conquered, Jerusalem and…