Editor’s Note: You can listen to this Ash Wednesday Sermon on Restoration Anglican Church’s podcast.
The life of Jesus is marked by healing. We marvel at the messiah as he travels through Galilee and Judea performing miracle after miracle, bringing wholeness and restoration to those who feel broken.
Does the solemn reminder of mortality we receive at the outset of […]
Every collect makes a request. […]
If your Facebook feed or your mailbox haven’t already clued you in, Election Day is quickly approaching. The midterm elections bring with them a renewed enthusiasm for partisan shoving matches and giddy mudslinging from both sides.
What strikes me in the last several turns of this electoral merry-go-round is the increasingly dire tone in the voices of opposition that imagine […]
This post originally appeared at LeaderWorks.
A while ago, I wrote about the ‘Formation Gap in the Information Age.’
I’m troubled by the incredible formational power our technologies exert on us and how slow local churches have been to account for this in their discipleship. If we are not speaking to the digital habits of the people in the pews, […]
This post originally appeared at LeaderWorks on January 23, 2018.
Preaching may be more than art, but it is certainly not less. It is a craft and a skill. An individual may have certain gifts given by God, but those gifts are diminished if not stewarded by effort and practice.
Excellence deceives us. When we see a baseball player effortlessly turn […]
This post originally appeared at LeaderWorks on April 17, 2018.
You are not a robot.
When someone asks why they should bother to read novels, that’s my answer. And when I’m asked this question by someone in ministry, I bold and italicize it.
Because behind this question is an ugly utilitarianism: What will these books do for me? Reading fiction is reduced […]
From LeaderWorks. Make sure to register for their upcoming webinar on Thursday, September 20, 2018 at 10:30 AM CST.
I made you a mixtape. Let me explain.
When I get to know someone in church ministry and it comes out at some point that I have a background in poetry, there’s usually just […]
For the record, I hear Laurel. I can’t not hear Laurel. My wife hears Yanny. I’ll let you know how that works out.
This latest viral sensation, similar to ‘The Dress’ before it, plays on the maddening subjectivity of human perception. Whether it’s sight or sound, we take our sensory perception as bedrock and when […]
As […]
Easter isn’t a finish line—it’s our kickoff to a season of celebration. Still, pastors can be forgiven for admitting that after Holy Week, they are a little exhausted. Whether your church hosts vigils, daily services, or some other Easter extravaganza, there is a lot to juggle.
Especially tricky is managing the liturgies. Palms and Passion, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday; Holy […]
This post, in addition to being a part of Rookie Anglican, is part of a series on the Collects of the Christian Year (ACNA), called “Collect Reflections.” If you’re just jumping in, make sure to check out the introductory post, “Announcing Collect Reflections.” All Collect Reflection posts can be found here.
The decline of the American church is often overblown. However, we have felt a seismic shift in cultural values in the 21st century. Even in the ‘Bible Belt’, it can’t simply be presumed that most people’s moral frameworks are founded on even a hazy understanding of the Bible.
In looking for guidance in the behaviors of […]
Lent begins with a necessary reminder: you are dust and to dust you shall return.
In Ash Wednesday, we speak these difficult words so that we might resist the influential fictions that our daily lives impress upon us. The fiction that we are in control. That we can fix ourselves. That we were designed first and foremost to love and care for […]
This post, in addition to being a part of Rookie Anglican, is part of a series on the Collects of the Christian Year (ACNA), called “Collect Reflections.” If you’re just jumping in, make sure to check out the introductory post, “Announcing Collect Reflections.” All Collect Reflection posts can be found here.
The season of Epiphany is directed outward; […]
Our church year begins with Advent, but self-reflection and goal-setting are good for all of us and the turning of the calendar is as good a time as any to start.
This year, why not resolve to be more generous?
Lots more ideas here!
As we argue in […]
This post, in addition to being a part of Rookie Anglican, is part of a series on the Collects of the Christian Year (ACNA), called “Collect Reflections.” If you’re just jumping in, make sure to check out the introductory post, “Announcing Collect Reflections.” All Collect Reflection posts can be found here.
By now, if you’ve been following […]
Advent is a time of waiting. As one who didn’t grow up but had to grow into the church calendar, the movement from increasing anxiety as Christmas approached to cultivating patient anticipation refreshed my hectic heart.
December is a hard time for church leaders to slow down. But the always-on, always-connected world we built with blind optimism in progress is now […]
After the events in Charlottesville in August, I came across an article by Doug Paul of Missio Alliance with a catchy and convicting subtitle: “When a Generation of Church Planters Reach Only White People” In reviewing the book The Creative Class, Paul argues (persuasively) that in creating ‘hip’ church plants, many young pastors may be inadvertently signaling a […]
It’s almost the end of the year. No, really. When I first became Anglican, I had little understanding of the church’s calendar. I knew that Advent was a thing that meant I should hold off on Christmas carols. I knew that Lent was a thing that meant I should give up something for 40 days. And…that was pretty much […]
It’s November now, and as leaves fall from the trees, so the days begin to pass by more quickly and we enter a season of busyness. It is a sad truth that what ought to be a season of rising anticipation often becomes for us a season of dread. We worry about travel, we worry about our schedules, we worry […]
