We are one week into our five-week summer series of worshipping on Thursday afternoons in the park.  We are one week into a five-week experiment. When asked if they like to try new things, most people will say they do.   It is easy for people to say, in the abstract, that trying new things is […]

The 32rd General Synod of the UCC will begin this Friday, June 21st in Milwaukee, WI.  The theme of this gathering will be drawn from Matthew 8, “Let Your Light Shine.” General Synod is a very important event in the life of our denomination.  The business of the UCC is done, worship is had, learning […]

Today is Trinity Sunday in the Christian church.  The day, one of my colleagues said, when the Holy Spirit is not regulated to the background but is brought front and center with God and Christ.  I said last week that it has been my observation and experience in midwestern Protestantism that the Holy Spirit is […]

I have always enjoyed Pentecost. I find myself reading the scriptures about the early Jesus Movement and wondering what it would have been like to be there. I find myself thinking about the Holy Spirit and if ancient times were set apart, or if people were better able to describe what they were experiencing using […]

By Melissa Musick Nussbaum Christmas Day and Easter Sunday share a similar problem. On the Feast of the Nativity, we want to linger before the baby in the crib; on the Feast of the Resurrection, we want to linger before the empty tomb. We’re like Peter, James and John before Jesus on the mountain — […]

Beloved Community, I offer my gratitude that you have given me the time and space to be away at a conference that is both challenging and uplifting. The Festival of Homiletics (in other words, a preaching conference for those who preach a progressive understanding of the Good News) is a conference I have wanted to […]

On the road to Damascus I met the Way, the Truth, the Life. On the road to Damascus I was blinded so I’d see the light. In the darkness I beheld the disease I held. Aware in the night of my soul, only His Life could make me whole. On the road to Damascus I […]

By Rachel Held Evans, modern day theologian and writer It will bother you off and on, like a rock in your shoe,  Or it will startle you, like the first crash of thunder in a summer storm,  Or it will lodge itself beneath your skin like a splinter,  Or it will show up again—the uninvited […]

The blog page of our brand new website will be used for a lot of things.  Periodically I will write reflections and/or observations.  I will share prayers.  I will use this space to help point out God.  And, if anyone is interested, they can offer a blog post and we will absolutely share it. But, […]