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Family baptism

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Having attended a more evangelical seminary, there were lots of different views on the sacrament of baptism floating around. And I was given no shortage of opportunities to explain the Presbyterian view of baptism being an outward sign of an inward change or even to defend … er I mean, explain … why Presbyterians continue to baptize infants and children. I have always been proud of the Presbyterian theology behind both of these decisions: It isn’t the water that takes away our sins, but Jesus Christ. Baptism is more than just one moment; it’s the beginning of choosing Jesus for a lifetime. And, being baptized as an infant or a child is just confirmation of the Reformed belief that God chooses us before we could ever even conceive of the thought to choose God. In the case of infant or child baptism, it is a family/parental promise to give that child any and every opportunity to know God and choose God back in his or her own life. Amusingly enough, I never considered why I loved the … [Read more...]

Tagged With: sacraments

Brainstorming and spiritual leaders

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I remember the first time I heard the word “brainstorm” as a little kid in school. My imagination immediately kicked in and I started imagining heads full of lightening bolts, storm clouds and precipitation. Little did I know, I was fully embracing the concept right then and there! Brainstorming is somewhat of a lost art. I remember learning it as a child: no ideas are bad; write everything down without evaluating; and don’t react! Those were the rules … or the un-rules, you could say. It definitely took some practice. It often seemed silly to not to evaluate along the way or settle on one idea early on, but brainstorming beautifully and in a God-like fashion seeks to honor all ideas as worthy of at least some space on the page. I would love to cultivate and stimulate the practice of brainstorming among church leaders more often, because it makes space for and helps develop so many of the qualities that make for dynamic spiritual leadership. First, it promotes creativity. … [Read more...]

Tagged With: leadership

Confessions of a type A pray-er

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I remember when I was in seminary when a friend asked me to pray for him. “I’m only asking you,” he said, “because I know you really will pray. There are a lot of people who say they will pray for you, but you know they never do. I know you’re not like that.” It was probably one of the biggest compliments he could have given me. But I confess that, at that time, it wasn’t something I felt that I was that great at. But, after he said those words to me, I made it my business to be the person that he believed I was: consistent and faithful in my prayer life. I’ve found that it’s easy to forget to pray for others. So, I put prayer requests in my phone the minute I get them. I keep track of them so that when I say, “I will be praying for you,” it is actually true. When I started keeping track (yes, I’m type A), I got a little obsessive about it. I would be praying and immediately feel like I needed to consult the list. And my prayers started to feel rote and sanitary as I rattled … [Read more...]

Tagged With: prayer

Waiting as a spiritual practice

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I think it would be accurate to say that most of life is lived and experienced in the in-between. While it may be those non-in-between moments that keep us excited about life and motivated when we are not yet there yet, there is so often space between each high and low. When we were children, we were always waiting to be one year older, to have one more year of responsibility and one more year of freedom. Now we wait for tests results to come back. We wait to meet someone who gets us and wants to share life with us. We wait nine months (or eight, or a few more agonizing weeks) for babies. We wait for career changes, diagnoses, to see loved ones again, for family vacations, through illnesses, for new construction, for next stages in life and even to see those who have passed away again … someday in the future. In a fast-paced consumer-driven economy and society, it is no wonder that many of us are impatient and struggle with waiting. We have two-day shipping, fast food, email, social … [Read more...]

Tagged With: Advent

When labels invade the church

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I recently had the opportunity to hear the stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), J. Herbert Nelson, speak as part of an ongoing celebration for the 200th anniversary of Newton Presbytery in New Jersey. I have read some of his words, of course, on PC(USA) communications, but I had never heard him speak. I very much appreciated his message and it has stuck with me for weeks. He talked a bit about how we are very divided as a denomination and have been ever since the North/South split that occurred before most bloggers (including myself) were ever born. He suggested that we have never recovered from that division and that, even worse, we are even further divided today over politics. "We have allowed the labels of conservative, liberal and moderate to invade Christendom," he said. And worse, we have pigeon-holed and demonized people by using these labels. I don't know about you, but I have personally witnessed both Christians and non-Christians acting in this way. Politics, … [Read more...]

What about heaven?

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 I recently began a new call as a solo pastor. I’ve been preaching the lectionary Scripture texts since I arrived in April. Honestly, preaching every week is still new to me, so I thought sticking with lectionary for a while would help me grow into the challenge. But, having moved from a relatively large Presbyterian church, I am actually more familiar with preaching a series. So, for better or worse, this summer I put together my first preaching series on heaven. I was so excited about it that I found myself "hyping" it to almost everyone around me – to fellow pastors, to random acquaintances at barbecues, to my family. And, interestingly enough, most of them had the same initial question regardless of their faith background: "Is there really much about heaven in the Bible?" Not wanting to sound like a know-it-all (and truthfully, having not completed all of the planning for the series at the time), I would typically respond with something comical like, "I sure hope so!" … [Read more...]

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