First Person
Discovering sabbath in my mother’s hospice room
She was a staunch observer of sabbath. It took her death for me to appreciate why.
Googling my way out of a pastoral relationship
The man turned in a visitor card. I pulled up my web browser.
Trees communicate with one another. I’m trying to listen.
My favorite is a 100-year-old male cottonwood. I call him Grandfather.
A pastoral encounter with abortion I’ll never forget
The teenager told me she was down to her last option: a hanger.
Paths to ministry
Six ordained people tell their stories
What happened after my mostly white church put up a Black Lives Matter sign
It got stolen, and I got scared.
My synod’s efforts to help pastors with their finances
Meeting personal money challenges can’t be the responsibility of ministers alone.
Church security and the risks of hospitality
My church has Fort Knox-level safety protocols. Why?
Bruised and blessed by scripture
My hermeneutic of suspicion wasn’t enough. I needed a hermeneutic of the hip.
I’m a “church leader” who doesn’t really go to church
I love the church. It's harder to love specific congregations.
A liturgy for people affected by suicide
One person told me, “It’s the first time I’ve been in a church for 30 years, since that day.”
The time my psychiatrist sent me on retreat
He leaned back and sighed. “I think what you need is a spiritual experience.”
Talking with my children about sex without shame
I wanted to give them better than what I had. It wasn't easy.
Biblical friendship in an age of loneliness
Facebook tells me I have 633 friends. Sirach tells me how few of those are faithful friends.
From Bethlehem to Jericho by foot
As we hiked the Abraham Path, I realized that every step was inescapably political.
On grief, and not theologizing about it
My son’s death did not evoke in me an interest in the problem of suffering.
Growing a garden church from food scraps and compost
We turned an empty lot in L.A. into an edible sanctuary.
Why our congregation gives directly to a church school in Haiti
As Père Diegue surveyed the unfinished classroom, he remarked: “I’m beginning to understand why I am here.”
The relics in Jerusalem didn’t move me. Why?
For some reason, I couldn’t find the holy in the holy rocks everyone else was venerating.
Why we wassail
Each winter, my family goes to our orchard to carry out an ancient tradition.