Yesterday I had the privilege of traveling down to the Pleasant Green Baptist Church on Jefferson Street to hear Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove share reflections from his new book, “Free to Be Bound: Church Beyond The Color Line” (Navpress). Pleasant Green is a historically black congregation located in the heart of what has been traditionally the center […]
Why Eating a Big Mac is Cheaper than Eating a Salad » Celsias
“Poems bore me,” I said.“I’m a prose man, rooted in the here and now, interested only in information.”Words were not to be played around with, like PlayDough, pushed here and pulled there to be manipulated on a whim and then pushed back together as a ball in a can to sit and slowly dry […]
There are certain persons in our world who have recently been trying to denigrate the importance of words in our world. “Words are fine,” they say, “but what really matters is action.” In the rhetoric against the power of words, this this code that we use to communicate with one another becomes “just words,” as […]
It’s been right at five years since I started writing this blog, and a lot of water has flowed under the bridge in that time. When I began I was relatively new to ministry, serving as an associate pastor in a large church in the suburbs. Since then I have made the journey to being […]
I can’t write for long, but I’m in Atlanta at the Emory Conference Center for a pre-gathering for the pilgrimage I am making to Israel this April. I am gathering with 19 other pastoral types from a variety of denominations to think, pray, and prepare ourselves for this trip to our version of Mecca. Be […]
Snort . . . gag . . . sniffle… I almost never take sick leave. Part of the reason is that I don’t get seriously sick that often. Part of the reason is that my workaholism probably makes me go to the office at times when I shouldn’t. This week was different. I noticed Sunday […]
This is a hoot!
Yesterday, I posted a message from Michael Welch, the pastor at Lafayette UMC, on my church web site. It was a gracious note thanking all for their desire to help with the recovery efforts following the tornadoes in that area. He also tactfully called for restraint, for in the zeal to help folks were actually […]
I don’t care about who you are voting for, but this video reflects a call to all of us. Take a few minutes to get inspired. Yes, we can…
As we all know, religious leaders find themselves in difficult positions when it comes to endorsing specific candidates for public office. Officially, the non-profit tax status of the communities that they serve can be put at risk when the leader fails to distinguish between a personal opinion and an official teaching of the church. […]
This is sermon 4 of a 4 part series on baptism During the past four weeks, we have been talking about baptism. We have looked that our call by God found in the midst of the waters, a call which proclaims us as beloved by God and sends us forth to share that love throughout […]
only wonder understands