Text: Exodus 12:1-13; 13:1-8 Several years ago, when I was serving another church, I became friends with the local Rabbi and we thought it would be great idea to do a joint study with our congregations during the season of Lent and Passover. It was a fun and fascinating experience as we had a chance to …
Genesis 37-50 One of the key tasks that every parent seems to take on is teaching your kid how to ride a bike. When I did that with our kids (seems like an eternity ago), I was struck about how different it is to learn today than it was back when I was a kid. …
A Sermon for the First Sunday of the Narrative Lectionary Genesis 2:4-7b, 15-15; 3:1-8 I’m very excited to begin our journey through the Narrative Lectionary this week, which will take us on a sweep through much of the Bible between now and Pentecost Sunday next May. I’m excited about this because I love to tell …
I will be attending the first gathering of the newly formed Wesleyan Covenant Association (WCA) on October 7 in Chicago, along with a “remnant” of orthodox colleagues in the Rocky Mountain Annual Conference. The recent election in the Western Jurisdiction and appointment of an openly lesbian bishop to our annual conference have raised the stakes for …
A sermon given at the Tri-Lakes United Methodist Church Camp Meeting on August 7, 2016 Text: Mark 12:28-34 Well, our Camp Meeting day has finally arrived. I’ve been looking forward to this for quite some time, and though we’re only here for the day, our history tells us that gathering in the outdoors for worship …
TLUMC Church Family, The Western Jurisdictional Conference of the United Methodist Church met July 13-16, 2016 in Scottsdale, AZ. The primary purpose of the jurisdictional conference is to elect and assign bishops to annual conferences within the jurisdiction. The jurisdictional conference meets every four years and, this year, there was one opening for a bishop. …
A Pastoral Letter to the People of Tri-Lakes UMC Continue Reading »
Elie Wiesel, the Nobel Laureate and survivor of the Holocaust, died this past week and there were a lot of rightfully reflective articles about his life and work in the media. If you’ve read his work, you know that it is powerful because it came through the lens of intense suffering and hope. One of …
It’s the Sunday before Independence Day, when we celebrate our country’s Declaration of Independence from Great Britain and the tyrannical rule of King George III. In 1776, our Founding Fathers decided that kings should no longer rule us and that government by the people would forever be our system of independent self-rule. Well, at least …
Ten years ago this summer I had the privilege of going on a trip to England to visit some of the key sites in Methodist history. It was a great trip, but besides the obvious excitement of doing things like standing in Wesley’s pulpit in the New Room at Bristol there were some other things …
Sometimes a picture can tell a story about a particular time or event in a way that words can’t capture. As the anniversary of D-Day rolled around this year, I was looking at a collection of World War II photographs online and came across this one. It was taken on June 13, 1936–just about 80 …
How many of you have ever heard a sermon from the book of Nahum? Chances are you haven’t. It’s not a very popular book, nor does it appear in any of the lectionaries. It’s probably because, at base, Nahum is really a prophecy of God’s vengeance against the Assyrians and their capital city of Nineveh. …
About ten years ago, our bishop at the time had all the clergy in our annual conference read a book by business guru Jim Collins called Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t. I still have the book on my shelf and I’m guessing a lot of you have read …
When was the last time you had a good cry? For some, it might be a long time—tears don’t come easy. But crying isn’t so hard for a lot of us. Our kids cry when their feelings are injured, when Mommy leaves them with the sitter, or when the teacher scolds them for being disruptive …
Part 2 of the series “Major Lessons from Minor Prophets” It must have been frontpage news at the supermarket checkout counters in Israel, right next to the hummus and the Tic-Tacs: “Local Prophet Marries Prostitute” screamed the headline of the Israel Inquirer. “Holy Man Hosea Hooks Up with Hooker” winked the Samarian Post. You can …
Part 1 of “Major Lessons from Minor Prophets” Text: Jeremiah 1:1-10 We begin a new series this week on the Minor Prophets, which is a part of the Bible that many people, even preachers, tend to skip over. I mean, how many sermons have you heard on Haggai or Habakkuk, for example? They tend to …