I've been going through the thousands of photos on my computer. They are a mix of personal photos and St. Stephen's photos. I’m getting rid of duplicates. I’m getting rid of the out-of-focus photos. I’m getting rid of the pictures where people have weird expressions, or they’re stuffing food in their mouths. I’m getting rid of all the pictures you wish were never taken of you. They are leaving the St. Stephen's photo archive. You're welcome. I recently went through a set of photos from the 2017 trip that Dave and I took to Berlin. East Berlin is the only place I can claim to have visited that Dave has never, and will never be able to visit. I traveled to East Berlin in 1968 to visit some of
To love, to invite, to serve. A very simple mission - a mission deeply rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Churches try to be counter-cultural in so many ways, but what happens when the very mission of a church (our church) is counter to everything that folks think of as church. “Churches are not welcoming of strangers.” (From a visitor of a church that was asked to move because she was in what some woman thought of as “her” pew). “Why would you want to be a pastor? All churches hate people like you.” (A comment directed towards me from someone I met. And I had to be honest with this person - yes - there are more haters than lovers in this case). “You believe in the Bible and not climate c
I've had the opportunity to visit some other churches in the past few weeks. Frequently when I go visiting, I visit other denominations. But the recent visits have all been to Lutheran churches. Even though each church offered a very different worship experience, they all offered a comfort of sameness in structure. Each church utilized different service music. But prayers were familiar. Hymns were familiar. I knew that most other Lutheran churches in the country were hearing the same readings, making us part of a larger communal body. I could count on participating in communion at each church. I knew I could count on a basic structure for the service: prayers of thanks to God, hearing the wo
Greetings from St. Louis and the National Workshop on Christian Unity! What a beautiful gathering thus far - Roman Catholic, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, The Episcopal Church, the United Methodist, and the Presbyterian Church USA (amongst other denominations) - all together talking about our joint efforts to live into the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A Gospel of grace, of love, and abundant life. I have been pondering this thing called ‘unity.’ What is it? We pray for one church: a holy (set apart by God), catholic (universal or whole - depending on your Greek word study choices), apostolic (continued living tradition of the apostles) church. Does this mean one universal church body? N
