It was early summer 2012, just before the 220th General Assembly.  Standing in the kitchen with my mother, I found myself somewhat absently leafing backwards through an issue of the Presbyterian Outlook as she listened to the radio.  Skimming a page near the front cover, four words snagged my attention: Don’t send anything controversial.  The piece was an op-ed that entreated commissioners to GA not to send anything back to the presbyteries that would be in any way controversial.  After all, churches were still leaving the denomination in some places, and in others there were plenty of raw wounds and shaken hopes for the future of the PC(USA). I could (and can!) certainly commiserate with this point of view. I have no desire for us to commit denominational suicide, and I am a firm believer in our Book of Order’s statement that, “Division into different denominations obscures but does not destroy unity in Christ.”  Words like, “The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), affirming its … [Read more...]

To correspond with our Spring Books issue, we asked our bloggers to share books that have influenced their ministry. Sometimes I find myself thinking that this job is impossible.  Oh I know what you’re thinking: with God all things are possible.  And it’s not that I don’t believe that, it’s just that sometimes it feels like it really would be easier to put a camel through the eye of a needle than to do the work that it seems like God is calling our congregation to do.  See, the church that I serve is trying to strengthen our ties with the neighborhoods surrounding us.  Not surprisingly, the demographics of the church and the demographics of our broader community don’t look all that similar.  We’re 90% white and our immediate neighborhood probably is too.  But two blocks away on both sides, our neighbors are 90% African American. Though I haven’t lived in Baltimore all that long, I’ve learned from those far more knowledgeable than I that issues of race and class still run deep … [Read more...]

Lent this year did not follow my very well thought-out, spiritually enlightened plans.  That’s not a new phenomenon – I am notoriously bad at sticking to whatever Lenten discipline I choose for myself.  Last year I tried to be more creative in my prayer life.  Newly ordained and still trying to learn the names and nuances of the congregation I’d been called to serve, this endeavor lasted all of a week before I went back to my well-worn routine.  In the years before that, Lenten dedication drowned in the fast moving current of work and school obligations. But this year is different.  This year, things haven’t fallen apart for the usual reasons or in the usual way.  Actually, things haven’t fallen apart at all – my Lenten discipline of a new prayer routine is going strong.  But Lent has not been the beautifully clean season of spiritual renewal that I had envisioned.  Lent this year has been messy and painful and terrifyingly convicting.  Lent this year got interrupted.  And I’m not … [Read more...]

This week, we asked our bloggers to name a few things that they wish they had learned in seminary.  Visit the Outlook Outpost blog each day this week for a new perspective on the question and join the discussion. On Christmas day, after leading the church’s annual 7 a.m. “ringing of the bells” service, I hopped on a plane and headed to Kansas City to spend time with my mom’s extended family.  Sitting next to me was a father with his young daughter who was all decked out in red and green and cradling a stuffed kitten.  As I drifted, dipping in and out of a light doze, the little girl started to talk. “Kitty was born in a stable on Christmas.  She was in a manger.”  The girl said this in an explanatory sort of way, as if telling the cat’s story was an important matter indeed. “Like Jesus,” her father said.  I opened my eyes, curious.  The little girl was nodding and petting the stuffed toy. Then she picked it up from her lap and held it in her arms like a baby.  She was clearly … [Read more...]

A note (if you read my last blog post and are curious): My dog, Cyrus is still alive and well.  On the day that I was scheduled to euthanize him, the vet said, “he seems to be doing better today – I think the prednisone is working!”  He’s back at home and almost back to his old self.  I couldn’t be more grateful. When a wave of a certain size finally curls over itself and pummels into the water below, there is this sound – a bass thud that you can feel in your stomach and your heart and your lungs if you’re paying attention.  It’s so low that it’s almost hard to hear.  But the way it hits your gut evokes a sense of wonder at something so grand and mysterious as water that can move you without you ever getting wet. We were standing on a beach in Florida, looking out over the Gulf.  The sun was setting and my friends all had their cameras (read: phones) at ready to document the beauty of the occasion.  But not me – my phone’s camera had recently decided to quit every time it was … [Read more...]