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October 2014

October 22, 2014

Denton Mystery Worship Six: A Nearly Perfect Experience

“The hour and forty minute service passed as though I had been there only a...

October 15, 2014

Denton Mystery Worship Five: Sound Bites and Church Plants

They needed 14 million two years ago; this past Sunday, they only needed 2.4 million...

September 2014

September 26, 2014

The Frozen Chosen and the AME Church

Trinity Presbyterian Church, 2200 N. Bell Ave, Denton, shuttered its doors on Sunday, September 21,...

September 18, 2014

Denton Bible Church: The Subtle Seduction

I felt the subtle seduction of this perfect and orderly world of Denton Bible Church...

September 16, 2014

Denton Mystery Worship One: The Sound of Children

After attending multiple worship services this summer where children were excluded, it was a refreshing...

September 10, 2014

California Mystery Worship Six: The Roundtable Church

It didn’t exactly set out to be a time of worship. It was simply a...

September 09, 2014

Shall We Just Call Them Mistakes?

The world is ever so much easier to deal with when everything divides into two...

September 02, 2014

Let's Talk About Sex #UMC

An article in the New York Times recently caught my eye. Titled, “Let’s Not Talk...

September 01, 2014

California Mystery Worship Five: Church Reservations Needed

My first hint that this might be a radically different place to go to church...

August 2014

August 19, 2014

California Mystery Worship Four: Back in the Saddle Again

As always, I arrived early. A friend and I had driven 40 miles to the...

July 2014

July 25, 2014

California Mystery Worship One: Hollywood UMC

“Good Heavens! Do you know what the land under this parking lot is worth?” That...

July 16, 2014

War is Normal; Peace is the Anomaly

I have just learned recently that one of the temples in ancient Rome housed the...

July 09, 2014

Let The Little Children Come

What are we going to do about the children? Anyone close to news sources knows...

July 04, 2014

Our Oaths of Citizenship: Earthly and Heavenly

"I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance...

June 2014

June 18, 2014

Gluten-Free=Gay-Free? A Call to Consistency #UMC

"Christ our Lord invites to his table all who love him, earnestly repent of their...

June 11, 2014

Celebrating the Dads

The little girl, perhaps five years old, happily danced around the edge of the beautiful...

May 2014

May 29, 2014

The Coup D'Etat Hope of the Good News "Gang of 80" #UMC #UMCschism

Steve Blow, one of my very favorite columnists, wrote in today's (5/29/14) Dallas Morning News...

May 27, 2014

The Inerrant, Infallible Bible: The Hermeneutical Crisis #UMC #UMCschism

The blogosphere exploded last week after the primarily anonymous "Gang of 80" announced through Good News their...

May 22, 2014

Memory Weekend Approaches–What Will We Do With It?

Our memories make us, inform us, shape us. They can fill us with the warm...

May 16, 2014

The Ninety-Nine and the One

What does it cost to do the right thing? Especially when doing the right thing...

May 07, 2014

Reflections On Les Miserables

Why does Les Miserables move me so much? In 2014, I watched an incredible Broadway...

May 05, 2014

The Biblical Basis for the Rape-Marriage #UMC

I just read this powerful, compelling, heart-rendering article by the Rev. Wil(da) Gafney, Ph.D., associate...

April 2014

April 20, 2014

Joy Spills Over

It is Easter Day. I find joy spilling out of my soul, rolling with waves...

April 17, 2014

I Would Have Cut and Run As Well

I would have cut and run as well. I would have run into that darkness...

April 14, 2014

Seven Tips for Offering Gluten-Free Communion

In my retired life, I wander from church to church on Sunday mornings. When I...

April 08, 2014

The Inquisition Cometh #UMC

That the inquisition cometh will be necessary in order for conservatives to maintain their doctrinal...

April 01, 2014

Why I Left Evangelicalism: "The Next Thing to Hate"

"After the first night of legal Gay marriage ceremonies in England and Wales, Christians are...

March 2014

March 20, 2014

The Celebrity Pastor Issue

Two “celebrity” pastors hit the religion news in the last week. One is internationally known...

March 17, 2014

Mark Driscoll and the Art of Unrepentant Repentance

I've had a real problem with mega-celebrity, bad-boy, foul-mouthed, plagiarist-publicity-seeking, sex-obsessed, females-better-submit-or-else, God-is-going-to-send-pretty-well-everyone-to-hell* pastor Mark...