There is nothing I can add to these nine things Thom Rainer has posted. Nothing. He writes — Another church closed. This church had unbelievable potential. Indeed, it had its own “glory days,” but only for a season. But, 10 years ago, few would have predicted this church’s closure. Today, it is but another statistic…

Last weekend our choir did their Easter Cantata. Pastor Jessica and I got to be narrators. I love every minute of this stuff! Three of the songs impacted me greatly and have haunted me all week. Here’s one, by Mike Harland  — Playing Games at the Foot of the Cross You’ve heard the story, many…

“Who can say? Is it we that make a choice? Or the choice that makes us?” The siblings who brought you The Matrix film series have a tv show. In its eighth episode, a character asks this — “Who can say? Is it we that make a choice? Or the choice that makes us?” — What say…

[NOTE: If you haven’t read my blog from yesterday, please scroll down and start there.] An old song: “It only takes a spark, to get a fire going.” Hard to do that with an empty matchbook. I wonder what that’s like when people are counting on us for help, for guidance, for a listening heart,…

The acolyte was on the way to light the altar candles. The acolyte came over and stopped by where I was standing and singing along with the congregation. “Joe, look!” I looked. I saw. The flame had gone out on The Candle Lighter Thing the acolyte was carrying. “No problem! Matches right here,” I said,…

Oops. I mis-read, or more accurately mis-guessed at, a word I couldn’t see. We were in the middle of a worship service, praying A Covenant Prayer in The Wesleyan Tradition. There was a screen I was reading, but part of it was obscured by light fixture hanging down from the ceiling. So it was that…

Kenneth Carder.  Cannot say enough good about him. He’s a United Methodist Bishop whom I quoted in my doctoral dissertation. We’ve since become online friends. I’d love for you and me to be able to sit down with him in real life for coffee. He recently wrote this of an event that happened while he…

There is nothing I can add to these nine things Thom Rainer has posted. Nothing. He writes — Another church closed. This church had unbelievable potential. Indeed, it had its own “glory days,” but only for a season. But, 10 years ago, few would have predicted this church’s closure. Today, it is but another statistic…

Several asked about the singer in my blog here a couple of days this week and where I heard of him. Quick, easy answer: I read about him in a sidebar piece in a catalog of “noteworthy goods,” as its cover says. (You get these things in the mail, too…where DO they get our contact…

“I have these ancestors on my shoulders that I don’t want to disappoint,” says Gregory Porter. (If you haven’t read my blog from two days ago and wonder who this Porter guy is, scroll down to Wednesday’s “Not on Nonsense” blog and come right back.) (Good, you’re back!) You and I have our own ancestors, too.…