When A Public Figure Doesn’t Agree with you. Oh the Horror!

I’ve been trying to place my frustrations from watching what happens to people when they disagree with a Christian Celebrity – or really any kind of Christian public figure. It’s amazing how crazy people get when they come across something this “celebrity” believes that they disagree with. I been saddened today as I’ve watched some well known…

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We’re Moving to Portland, OR

For the last 14 years that we have been married my wife and I have been living in the Philadelphia area. If you count the 4 years at college, we’ve been here for 18 years. For 13 years we have been serving at The Well, our church here in Philly and its with a lot…

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Daring Greatly at BarCamp Philly

I’m revisiting Brene Brown’s book Daring Greatly for a short talk I’m doing at Barcamp Philly tomorrow morning. I’m calling the session “Vulnerability Practice“. I’m going to  give a brief overview of the book and share my own story of my journey in to daring to live a more vulnerable life. Then I’m going to…

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To Be Human is to Be in Conflict

One of the things I continue to learn is that relationships bring conflict. I generally don’t like conflict. It doesn’t seem like I am alone in this opinion. But, I’m a big fan of relationships. If you want friendships and relationships, you get conflict. I guess if you don’t want conflict you can just get…

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Vulnerability is the Gateway to Community

I have lots of friends. Some of these friends are closer than others. The fact that some are closer than others is quite fine. After all, one can only have so many close friendships. But, I am guessing that all of us have some friendships that should be closer than they are. There are probably…

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The (Missional) Vocation of Marriage

A lot is currently being said about marriage these days due to the recent publication of two books on marriage by two famous (and/or infamous) pastors. I won’t link to one of them because I just don’t think it would be helpful, but I will link to the other one because (while I haven’t read…

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Why I Run.

I used to be one of those guys who would look at people running and say “those people are nuts.” I mean, why would I run? Growing up playing sports, running was always the punishment for doing something wrong. Miss too many free  throws? Run. Drop a fly ball? Run. Make the wrong pass? Run.…

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The Vocation of Marriage…

Marriage is intended as a redemptive partnership that serves as an example to the world of the in-breaking reality of God among us. It points backward to God’s original intent for creation while pointing forward to what will be true again in the future. This is the vocation of marriage.

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Reflecting on Back Surgery & the Poor

For the last 6 months my I’ve had shooting pain down my left leg in addition to it going numb all the way down to my toes whenever I stand for more than 3-5 minutes. Strangely, it has been the worst when walking through a grocery store. I’ve taken that as a sign to stop…

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On Running My First half-Marathon

The last time I ran in a timed, race-type event was in high school.  It was gym class and one of the kids in my class was on the cross country team.  I didn’t like him very much (I don’t now remember why).  He was not only on the cross-country team but he was pretty…

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