In my New Year’s post, I wrote about the need to lean into discomfort in 2017 as a way of traveling a journey of hope. After a two weeks of a Trump presidency and more civil and political unrest than I have ever witnessed in my lifetime, I don’t feel I have to lean in...
I got angry. While attending the Faith Forward Gathering a few weeks ago, Dr. Daniel White Hodge, Assistant Professor of Youth Ministry at North Park University, recounted a recent experience he had in which he had been pulled over by police. Although he wasn’t...
I was really late to the party. The ability to binge watch TV encourages me. I can always start a series later, so shows tend to stack up like a giant pile of laundry in my queue. Doctor Who was one of those shows. The BBC series, that first aired in the 1960s, and...
If I've done the Holy Week thing right, I really, really feel relieved and happy on Easter morning. I can hear the birds chirping out my window as if for the first time. I appreciate sunlight, even if it is obscured by clouds, in a way I never thought possible. The...
When I was 22 years old, I’m pretty sure that when I envisioned what I’d be doing at age 41, I dreamt things like winning an Oscar or a Pulitzer Prize (or at least having been nominated). I would work at the New York Times as a film critic or an investigative...
Most days, I masquerade as a perfectly normal Mainline Protestant. Phrases like “priesthood of all believers,” “saved by faith alone” and “congregational meeting” roll off my tongue like honey. I’m just fine with there being only two Sacraments. I creatively mold...
The Catholic elementary school I attended was in the heart of South Omaha, an area that was most recently populated by the families of European immigrants who worked in the packing plants and railroad yards that still dotted the dreary industrial landscape. Few of our...
The girls became blurs of black and white ribbon, green gingham and white lace as they twirled, leapt and frolicked around the folk art communion table. Their slightly askance pirouettes melded seamlessly into the upbeat prelude played by the worship band just in...
Confusion. Frustration. Anxiety. Was written all over my face. I hate to admit this. I like being the one who always has it all together. But, let’s face it. I don’t. I left the house a little too late. In the early morning winter darkness, I got a little lost on the...
Friends inundated my Facebook feed with news of Ariyana Smith’s protest at a Knox College basketball game on Nov. 29, 2014. Since then, news of the college’s reaction to her protest have made their way into my email inbox. You may not remember this particular early...
This blog series, Family Ministry: Not Just for the Christian Right Anymore, explores how family-based faith formation ministry will help progressive Christian values take root first in homes and then throughout our communities and the world in order to spread justice...
This blog series, Family Ministry: Not Just for the Christian Right Anymore, explores how family-based faith formation ministry will help progressive Christian values take root first in homes and then throughout our communities and the world in order to spread justice...
This blog series, Family Ministry: Not Just for the Christian Right Anymore, explores how family-based faith formation ministry will help progressive Christian values take root first in homes and then throughout our communities and the world in order to spread justice...
This blog series, Family Ministry: Not Just for the Christian Right Anymore, explores how family-based faith formation ministry will help progressive Christian values take root first in homes and then throughout our communities and the world in order to spread justice...
The Onion article totally nails the church's "if we build it they (youth) will come" mentality. What do young people really need from a faith community that has nothing to do with a rec room? http://ow.ly/AZFPO