St. Stephen's Lutheran Church

OK, I promised I would let you know what I think my time priorities ought to be. I’m going to break that promise for now. Because it’s Thanksgiving. And giving thanks is a transformative spiritual practice (something - spiritual practices - I said I would focus on in my time here). Of course, you would expect a preacher to say something like giving thanks is a transformative spiritual practice around this time of year. But would you expect Asheesh Advani to say this? Advani i

Thanksgiving is just around the corner. It gives us another opportunity to reflect on all of the blessings in our lives even when some things in our lives may not feel like a blessing. Each of us has our share of ups and downs; some have many more downs than ups. Yet, I believe everyone has some thing or a few things for which he or she can be thankful. And that leads me to why the title of this message is hyphenated. In my life, not everything has gone as I would have hope

Well, hello, St. Stephen’s! To be honest, I didn’t see myself taking on any interim ministries in retirement. Instead, I’ve been putting most of my working time into becoming a certified coach. That and doing all the family and travel things that retirement allows (and COVID did not prevent). But an interim ministry at a place like St. Stephen’s where the folks are actively engaged in doing what ministry they can in the neighborhood where God has put them? That is enticing! S

These are the “thin times” of the year. I don’t know that that’s an “official” liturgical designation for them. But these are times when it seems we cannot help but take notice of the presence of … well, of curiously “extraordinary” events around this time of the year. They’re cultural; and they’re cross-cultural. In one sense they’re not abnormal; in another sense some of them are. I’m being vague: deliberately, I guess. Let me try to be less vague … if I can. For one