Rich

Today is one of those days when I marvel at the wealth of our life here in L.A. When I look around and see the diversity of the people in Mercy, Aaron and Elijah’s life; when I see the kind of love and devotion that our church family shows to them daily; when I stop… Continue reading Rich

Giving thanks

I am struck today by how inadequate I can feel in my ability to truly offer my thanks and gratitude to those who give so much to me and to my family. A few examples come to mind: After two long and I am sure exhausting weeks of helping us out, my mom left last… Continue reading Giving thanks

Shift

A good friend stopped by the other day to meet Baby Elijah. She fundraises her salary to work with our Servant Partner’s internship program, and during her visit, it came up that she had lost a few donors in the last couple of months and that she was facing a critical lack in financial support… Continue reading Shift

Quotation of the Week

Today I’m really tired, because we’ve been having a heat wave in southern California, and we spent most of the day yesterday moving offices at work. So I’m just going to make some observations about this topic. Here’s what I observed: women helping the facilities guys move stuff. Women hauling carts piled high with stuff… Continue reading Quotation of the Week

Tired

I was just talking to a good friend about the history of our church, and some of the reasons people have left our ministry over the years. There have been interpersonal conflicts, natural transitions (like marriage or geographic relocations), as well as I think what one blogger describes as “missional fatigue” (I can’t remember whose… Continue reading Tired

The simple life

Jordon Cooper has a great post on simplicity. A lot of people write on this topic, but I really appreciated his tone: one of humility and, well, simplicity in talking about what some of the basic issues are. I resonated with his descriptions of his family’s home, and the adequacy of their space. Doug and… Continue reading The simple life

Some thoughts for preachers

Just this week my sister and I were talking about some different authors and their approach to biblical interpretation. We discussed some books in particular that demonstrated what felt like two extremes: one, making definitive claims about God’s activity in a specific passage and its meaning for us (one could say a moralistic approach), and… Continue reading Some thoughts for preachers