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March 2016

March 27, 2016

This is Sunday, All Day Long

What if I told you that you could change the world using only the first...

December 2015

December 24, 2015

Meanwhile, Instead, Anyway: Christmas, the Great Conjunction

My high school English teacher--the one who showed me the wonders of eliminating 'to-be' verbs...

December 17, 2015

Let it Go: What Church Can and Can’t Be at Christmas

Here's what I did NOT need to see: that article from "Christianity Today" about how...

November 2015

November 30, 2015

Keeping the Light

Normally, I’m a purist. Nothing green or sparkly goes up at my house until the...

August 2015

August 05, 2015

$h*! Jesus Says: 7 Reasons I’m (Still) a Christian

This one's for the Skeptics, the Cynics, the Critics; the Dones, the Nones, and the...

July 2015

July 19, 2015

Home By Another Way

I'm at my denomination's General Assembly this week. Every other year, in the HOTTEST PART...

June 2015

June 27, 2015

Holy Edges: 10 Things to Preach if Your Church is Divided on Gay Marriage

It’s going to be a great day at my church tomorrow. My congregation has been...

June 24, 2015

Good Call: 10 Ways to Nail that Pastoral Search Interview

It's that time again. All over the country, exhausted pastoral search committees plow through another...

May 2015

May 05, 2015

Beyond Pink Carnations: Why I Don’t Do Mother’s Day at Church

Most Sunday mornings, I take a few prayerful moments before worship. I stand at the...

March 2015

March 31, 2015

Holy Week Survival Guide: 10 Life Hacks for Clergy

Lace up the trainers, zip up your robe. Eye of the tiger, baby. It is...

April 2014

April 24, 2014

A Doctor, A Pastor, and a Car Salesman…

No, they're not walking into a bar. But perhaps they should... Here's what I know...

April 18, 2014

In New Skin, Again

Yes, this is what I do when I should be working on sermon notes, or...

January 2014

January 22, 2014

Showing Up

I never know what to say when someone thanks me for making a hospital or...

December 2013

December 23, 2013

In Church, At Christmas Time

It's Christmas week, and you know what that means--re-runs! I wrote this piece last year,...

December 17, 2013

Detour: Holiday Hospitality for Churches

It’s the week before Christmas. You haven’t been to church in a year. Maybe in...

September 2013

September 12, 2013

I Never Wanted Church

Guest Post by Sarah Stewart Holland In 2009, I convinced my husband to leave our...

June 2013

June 18, 2013

What’s the Point of Church?

We might not see it all the time, but I know that the church is...

May 2013

May 01, 2013

Rootless and Wandering

If you ever wonder what pastors talk about when we get together, the topics are,...

December 2012

December 24, 2012

Go and See

God comes wherever we are: even if we've failed to pray the right prayer; even...

December 19, 2012

In Church, at Christmastime

The phone is ringing off the hook, The sanctuary’s hard to book. Yes it’s clean--dare...

November 2012

November 28, 2012

An Empty House

A Tao of Christmas shopping, from a wannabe minimalist: So, i buy most of my...

September 2012

September 12, 2012

Preparing a Place

Sometimes the best, most life-giving things in the life of a church evolve without a...

July 2012

July 24, 2012

What We Can Learn…

Confession time: for all that i am willing to proclaim what is wrong with mega-church culture, I...

April 2012

April 10, 2012

S*^! Jesus Says… Or Doesn’t

I just dropped a book, picked it up, and then proceeded to trip over a...

April 04, 2012

A Sacred Discomfort

Doing some stretches. Carbo-loading (translation: stress eating lots of chocolate and white bread). Having some...

October 2011

October 12, 2011

Everyone Else

October is a big month at my house. Yesterday was baby's birthday (not such a...

September 2011

September 10, 2011

Soul Seasons

A pumpkin latte in my hand. From Not Starbuck's. A cool crisp 62 degrees out....

September 09, 2011

For Such a Time as This

I was sitting on the floor of my crummy first-year-of-being-a-grownup apartment, doing grad school homework...

September 08, 2011

The Sacred Struggle

"The middle ground lies in the struggle. The acceptance that, when violence becomes necessary to...

September 07, 2011

Suck it Up

Ultimately, as a society, we suck on alot of things that make us sick. And...