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Category: Ministry

  • In Which I High-Five a Bishop

    If you had told me last week that I would get to high-five a bishop in the middle of his sermon at Annual Conference, I would have told you that you were dreaming.  Bishops don’t do that.  But bishops do do that and there I was last Saturday as the visiting bishop from Mississippi, James →

  • Dismantling Confederate Monuments — Revisited

    ministrymatters.com/…/confederate-monuments-and-controversy A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the decision by the City of New Orleans to dismantle a number of monuments to Confederate heroes.  “More memory not less,” was my plea.  I developed that theme in an article that is now out on FaithLink, a United Methodist Curriculum.  A portion of that article →

  • The Empty Bench at The Book Bin – Remembering Kirk Mariner

    The sofa bench in the back of The Book Bin was empty the other day.  The regulars by the coffee window are hesitant to sit there.  A sign on the door indicates that the staff knows that our local independent book store will be a place of mourning and memory for awhile.  The bench was →

  • Back to the Cross: The Inclusive Vision of Fleming Rutledge

      If the theology podcast Crackers & Grape Juice has any redeeming value*, (and Lord knows they have interviewed some questionable characters in their brief existence—primary evidence: their January interview with me!), it is the recurring “Fridays with Fleming” segments that have introduced the Episcopal priest and theologian, Fleming Rutledge, to a wider audience.  With →

  • Why I Took Jacob to a Wedding

    I brought Jacob to a wedding last weekend.  You know, Jacob the biblical heel-grabber, trickster, tent-dwelling, mama’s boy?  Not usually thought of as a model for 21st century marriage ceremonies. Particularly since his own marriage history is so strange: Boy meets Girl.  Boy falls in love with Girl.  Boy talks to her father.  Father agrees →

  • Guest Blogger – C. Christopher Smith: Stirring the Economic Imaginations of Churches

      I’ve learned a lot about books from C. Christopher Smith.  Chris is not only the editor of the Englewood Review of Books, to which I occasionally contribute.  His press is also the publisher of my book, A Space for Peace in the Holy Land: Listening to Modern Israel & Palestine.  He’s a great observer and interpreter →

  • Fidget Spinners, Coffee Mugs, and the Hope of the Church 

    What the church really needs for revival is to be socially relevant.  No, it all starts with a great music program.  Wait, we need a mission statement that’s clever and quippy.  How about a Bible study that offers applicable principles for everyday living?  Don’t forget the giveaway mugs! There’s no end to prescriptions for turning →

  • What can the Rural Church Offer a Declining Community? Hope!

    From the Faith & Leadership newsletter, an article by Allen T. Stanton: “In a community of decline, hope becomes countercultural. While it would be wrong to foster a false sense of optimism or to promise that manufacturing and young adults will return, the church has a unique ability to stand in the hard realities and still preach →

  • James Baldwin’s Moment and the Danger of Racial Innocence

    James Baldwin is having a moment, 30 years after his death.  First, Ta-Nehasi Coates’ Between the World and Me, a book that drew its inspiration from Baldwin’s 1963 book The Fire Next Time, topped The New York Times’ bestsellers list.  Then, a documentary about Baldwin, I Am Not Your Negro, was nominated for an Academy →

  • How to Preach a Bad Sermon

    Yesterday, I preached a bad sermon.  I quoted and misquoted Mark Twain, King, and Ghandi without attribution.  I cruelly mocked my child by telling stories of his misdeeds.  I violated the privacy of a parishioner with health issues to highlight my prowess in pastoral care.  And I managed to talk far more about myself than →