I am a pastor at 
Mason has become quite the singer, this is him leading is brothers in some of his favorite songs.
An Invocation for Our MLK Gathering
Last night I had the honor of participating in our local Martin Luther King, Jr celebration service. This is always a meaningful event because we get to worship God together with a very diverse group of churches. I led the invocation during the gathering. This is what I shared:
Dr. King once spoke the following words:
“No American can afford to be apathetic about the problem of racial justice. It is a problem that meets every man at his front door.”
This is so very true.
However, so very many of us in the world have become so very good at closing our front door and ignoring the pain, the injustice and the brokenness that is right on our front steps.
We have been conditioned to seek a comfort above all things. But I believe this search for comfort can be an enemy to justice.
It is this search that makes us close our doors and shut our eyes to the broken reality of our world. We’d rather live in our imaginary world of comfort …
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Bi-Vocational Pastors
As a pastor who has spent the last nine years living a bi-vocational life (sometimes tri-vocational), I appreciated all the discussion on David Fitch’s blog post back in November. I posted the rhythm I have been living for the last nine months back in November also. Things have …
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Top 55 Pastor-Bloggers
So, apparently I am one of the top 55 pastor bloggers. Not sure how that list was made. But I guess its cool. And hey, I am #33 right after the one and only Eugene Cho. Maybe that’s because we share a name (my middle name is Eugene …
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What Are Your Habits?
Sometimes I miss really obvious things. I think it is because of familiarity. You know, you see or hear something over and over again and you miss the significance of something. For example, most of you would know the name Dick Butkus (pronounced by most people: Dick Buttkiss). He’s one …
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Edwin Freidman on Change
Edwin Friedman spoke the following at the Baccalaureate address to Albert Einstein High School in 1964:
“The universal ingredient and force which permeates all of life – namely change – is changing for the faster, and this means that it will become more and more necessary for each of us to … -
Emerging Church Reading Group
One of the more challenging things (Among many others) with being a pastor at The Well is the constant need for us define if we are an “emerging church” or not. I’m not going to get into that here, I’ve already done so …
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Peace on Earth. We Need it Now…
Sing the honest words of U2 in this song tonight as I process through the loss of a friend tonight.
Heaven on Earth, we need it now
I’m sick of all of this hanging around
Sick of sorrow, sick of the pain
I’m sick of hearing again and again
That there’s gonna be peace … -
Karl Barth Meets the Emerging Church
Note: Below is my fictional account of a meeting between some emerging church pastors and the late Karl Barth. I am not sure why I had to note that it is fictional…but you can never be too safe. All references to actual people are simply supposed to be funny, unless …
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Teaching Your Kids about Giving To Others
Two weeks ago I posted on twitter that to be an activist without actually doing anything is hypocrisy. I was quoting a friend and I think the statement is meant to be a little overstated to make a point. The point is this, if you are gonna get all …
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Instead of a Show
I’ve been loving Jon Foreman’s seasons albums the past few weeks. If you don’t know Jon Foreman is the lead singer of Switchfoot and these albums are really well done. I love his song “Instead of a Show” that I am pretty sure he wrote in response to Isaiah 1 …
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The Weekly Rhythm of a Bi-Vocational Pastor with Three jobs and Three kids
My parents keep saying to me, “It’s a good thing you are young.” They are right and honestly I feel like I am getting older by the minute (wait, I am getting older by the minute…) But, the reality of life for us right now is that I have …
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Three Questions Worth Spending Significant Time Contemplating
In his excellent book The Monkey and the Fish, Dave Gibbons asks three questions as he talks about the massive shift that is going on in our world. How are we to figure out how to navigation this rapidly …
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Newbigin on Leadership
I read Lesslie Newbigin’s chapter on Leadership from his book The Gospel in a Pluralist Society once every few months. It’s that good. Here is an excellent excerpt:
“The task of ministry is to lead the congregation as …
