One of the books I’ve been reading for my D.Min. program is by Mary McClintock Fulkerson called Places of Redemption: Theology for a Worldly Church. She follows a southern multiracial congregation through its trials and triumphs as they seek to be multicultural. Her book starts with this small United Methodist congregation as a dying white … Continue reading “Hope for Redemption?”
Category: God
A Church with Passion
I did an experiment this past Sunday. I shared in the sermon the idea of seizing each moment by trying to be intentional about paying to what God might be doing in that moment. It’s a delicate balance of seeing the past, learning from it, but not getting stuck in it, and looking to the … Continue reading “A Church with Passion”
Schismata in the Body of Christ
As many are aware, my denomination, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A), is embroiled in an ongoing division over ordination standards and biblical interpretation as it pertains to LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgendered) people and their place (or lack of) in the life of the Church. With the recent passage of Amendment 10-A, which amended our denomination’s … Continue reading “Schismata in the Body of Christ”
There is Hope…
This just in from the Covenant Network, reporting on a case that reached the highest commission in my denomination, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) (the General Assembly Permanent Judicial Commission, or GAPJC), involving the ordination of an openly gay woman who, in keeping with our tradition, declared a scruple (conscientious objection) to several parts of the … Continue reading “There is Hope…”
Paralyzed by Fear
I have been using the Feasting on the Word‘s Daily Feast: Meditations from Feasting on the Word, Year B for my sermon prep the past few weeks. I am jazzed by the directions it has taken me, places I would not have naturally gone. In Monday’s devotional using March 18th’s lectionary text, the author focuses … Continue reading “Paralyzed by Fear”