Open, Affirming and Following

Why we need to move from affirmation to discipleship for LGBTQ people.

Giving Thanks in Advent World

Thanksgiving is a time of looking back and giving thanks to God. Advent is a time of looking forward and living into God's promised future. Below, I did a video on Advent and Thanksgiving in light of the recent shooting at an LGBTQ bar in Colorado Springs. https://youtu.be/pwnUqiZh-ic

Are We A Progressive Church?

Is First Christian a progressive congregation? The answer is complex.

Vespers: Happy Pride

What do LGBTQ people mean when they talk about pride?

Eugene Peterson and the Age of Shibboleths

I don't know when it happened, but I've become a walking, talking shibboleth. A shibboleth is a word or custom that signifies who is in the ingroup and who is in the outgroup.  Think of it as an old fashioned version of virtue signaling. Now, I didn't personally become a shibboleth, but the fact that...

Sermon: That’s Me In the Corner

Galatians 1:13-17; 2:15-21 and Luke 18:9-14 Sixth Sunday of Easter Losing My Religion Sermon Series May 21, 2016 First Christian Church Mahtomedi, MN Click here to listen to the audio. It’s been about two years since our congregation voted to become an Open and Affirming congregation, meaning that we openly welcome Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and...

Sermon: Sanctuary

Romans 11:1-2 and 13-24 Fifth  Sunday After Pentecost June 19, 2016 First Christian Church Mahtomedi, MN Listen to the sermon. I was in track in high school.  We would have practice after school and I remember going into the locker room to change.  Everytime I would pass by a training room that was for people...

The New Orthodoxy and Me

For the last few years, I've been impressed with a growing number of writers and bloggers, mostly from Methodist circles, but from some other traditions as well who seem to be carrying the Neo-Orthodox/Post-Liberal banner that had seem somewhat dormant for a while. I've been attracted to this stream of Protestantism after finding both evangelicalism...

Tiny Violins

Some of the responses to to a recent post as well as some extra reading has me back at the keyboard again to share something thoughts about this rapidly changing situation in Indiana. I want to focus on one issue in particular: the demand by social conservatives to push for tolerance . So here goes....

Fear Factor

Religious conservatives and the LGBT community have to learn to make room for each other.