Over the past few weeks, there has been a lot of conversation happening in Presbyterian circles about the “Deathly Ill” letter that was signed by a group of 45 Presbyterian pastors (most coming from large churches) – all of whom happened to be men – who refer to themselves as The Fellowship of Presbyterians. I am not going to go into the details of the letter here or offer a specific response to the letter, because others have done a much better job than I could and I will simply point you to Katie Mulligan’s post here and Margaret Aymer Oget’s post here.
The Fellowship of Presbyterians: Let us Break Away but Keep Our Property & Millions…
February 25, 2011 58 Comments
Big Tent Christianity – Phoenix: A Review
February 23, 2011 14 Comments
About two weeks ago, I got to hang out with a lot of friends at Big Tent Christianity in Phoenix. I convinced my wife to come along and join me, and we ended up spending a beautiful post-conference weekend in Sedona. I wasn’t sure what I expected from the Big Tent event, but I had heard great things about the first event in Raleigh and so I had high hopes.
First things first. I really like the folks who planned this event – and their desire to try new things, try new formats and be open to a new way of doing conferences. For the most part it worked really well; other times there were some miscommunications that ended up being a little awkward (like when Richard Rohr thought he had an hour to speak, but really had 10 minutes). But overall – it was well-organized and you could tell there was a lot of thought put into the planning of it – and I have to give them kudos.
Let the Running Begin!
February 8, 2011 2 Comments
So I’ve decided to start running again. I realize that I’m a goal-oriented runner. I need to have a race to get me to train and really go for it – otherwise I’ll just sit around thinking about how it would be nice to start running again. Last year on May 1, I ran my first ever half marathon. It was an awesome experience, and I’m hoping this year’s will be just as fun. I’m a couple weeks short of the 12 week “Hal Higdon” training program, but it will be okay. I’m running the Western Pacific Half Marathon. It’s probably not the most amazing, but it’s close and it’s a similar course (pretty flat) as last year’s course was – and I want to see if I can shave off some time, and I’m busy when the American River Parkway Half Marathon is happening this year.
Certified Ready to Receive a Call…again.
February 4, 2011 10 Comments
This week I met with the Presbytery of San Francisco’s CPM for my Final Assessment, and after spending two hours with them, they brought me back into the room and let me know that I am now officially Certified Ready to Receive a Call.
Well, I’ve actually been here before with another presbytery, but it feels a little more official now after having gone through a fairly rigorous process. We are in the midst of trying to figure out what that means for me and for my current call to serve at a United Methodist Church, but it just feels so good to be at the end of this call process.
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