Category: Church

Goodbye, Charlie and Kate

Saturday afternoon I had the privilege of sharing words of gratitude honoring twenty-seven years of Charlie Barker’s service in ministry at Pasadena Covenant Church. Charlie was the pastor who, through meeting my sister and brother-in-law and hearing the story of our community here in South Central, led his church in embracing a partnership with us… Continue reading Goodbye, Charlie and Kate

Doing it together

I once heard someone say that there is no such thing as “a sense of ownership”. That resonates with me as I think through all of the times I have seen a group with power create the image or illusion that that power is shared when the reality is that it is not. Put plainly,… Continue reading Doing it together

Can you hear me now?

This past Sunday I was a guest preacher at a church in Simi Valley which is something I actually enjoy doing. I was nervous about the length of my sermon (sermons at our church are at least forty-five minutes) and did end up cutting quite a bit from what I had planned to say. My… Continue reading Can you hear me now?

I love this girl

We spent the day at the beach with our church family and lots of new kids and parents we are getting to know through our summer program and the special week of sports and arts camps we just hosted with Pasadena Covenant Church. It was Elijah’s first real beach outing and he LOVED sitting in… Continue reading I love this girl

Friends

Eugene Cho posted a link to a Relevant Magazine article on materialism where seven Christian leaders respond to the question of how to follow Jesus in an age that worships mammon. Shane Claiborne’s response struck a chord with my own experience of who I care about and why: What is enough is defined by our… Continue reading Friends

Check, please

I recently attended a fundraising workshop sponsored by Mission Increase Foundation (an excellent organization committed to helping Christian non-profits build capacity), and the topic was how organizations manage information surrounding donors and their gifts. Our facilitator, Matt Bates, told a story about a large rescue mission that regularly received hundreds of gifts daily from donors… Continue reading Check, please

My tribe

I was just checking the news feed on my denomination’s website when I saw a link to this story about my former pastor in Portland being given a denominational honor in recognition for his years of visionary service. Having just mentioned Pastor Henry in my Missional Synchroblog post (as well as President Palmberg who presented… Continue reading My tribe

Missional: To die and to live

“The crucifixion was the consequence of the incarnation.” And so it can also be said that the resurrection was the consequence of the crucifixion (thank you, Patrick), and that too is a necessary theme of “missional” we do well to explore. Moving from death to life: when I considered how to describe the ways that… Continue reading Missional: To die and to live