Category: Uncategorized

  • Response to the Responses to the Nashville Statement

    I have been reading online about the responses to the Nashville Statement, a statement by the evangelical organization  Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood that stands firmly against homosexuality and transgenderism as within the will and gifts of God. And I’ll be honest – I have mixed feelings about the…

  • Sermon: Loving Your Enemies, or: How to Heap Burning Coals on Their Heads

    Due to popular demand (I love saying that!), here is my sermon from February 19.  Mostly I think some people wanted to read it because of the sermon title 🙂  This is the last sermon in a six-week sermon series on Matthew 5, the first chapter of Jesus’ Sermon on…

  • A New Start

    Welcome!  I’ve had a few different blog sites over the years – two main ones:  Transforming Followers – which I started when I served as an Executive Presbyter, working with 65 churches in central and southwestern Minnesota. A Deeper Spiritual Life – which I started when I began my work…

  • Pakistan – Presbyterian Education Board

    This is a long post – a compilation of several recounting my visit to Pakistan in January, 2011. THURSDAY, JANUARY 20, 2011 Pakistan – Kinnaird Academy Yesterday we arrived in Pakistan, our group from Minnesota Valleys Presbytery and friends, and after a short nap (we arrived at 2 am!), our…

  • Who inspires You?

    WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2010 Who inspires You? It was with sadness that I read last week of the death of Carol Weir.  (You can read the Presbyterian News Service story here)  Carol and Ben were wonderful friends.  When I was in seminary I got to know them both very well,…

  • Youth – The Future of the Church?

    MONDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2010 Youth – The Future of the Church? Those of you who know me know that I would never say that – the youth are the present of the church!  We all are the future, no matter what our age.  But I raise this question for a…

  • The Importance of the Leader’s Attitude

    MONDAY, MARCH 8, 2010 The Importance of the Leader’s Attitude I read an interesting article on the “Social Intelligence and the Biology of Leadership”, by Daniel Goleman and Richard Boyatzis (September 2008 issue of the Harvard Business Review). In it, Goleman and Boyztzis talk about a recent discovery of “mirror…

  • The $100 Challenge

    MONDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2010 The $100 Challenge  At our December Presbytery meeting last year, our presbytery council gave $100 to every church present with a challenge – multiply it for mission.  That was the only instruction, and the sky was the limit.  This is an old idea – Jesus told…

  • The Gift of the Community of Faith

    TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2009 The Gift of the Community of Faith I turned on NPR the other day and Peg Chamberlain, executive director of the Minnesota Council of Churches and new president of the National Council of Churches, and Joel Hunter, senior pastor of Northland, A Church Distributed, were talking…

  • The Power of the Word

    WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2009 The Power of the Word No, I don’t mean the Bible. I mean the words we use to talk about ourselves. I was in a conversation with someone the other day about this, and she noted that in our presbytery we don’t tend to speak very…