I am the lead pastor at People's United Methodist Church in the Wisconsin Conference of The United Methodist Church, husband of my beautiful wife, Barbara, dad to my fantastic son, Josh and his wife Caroline, step-dad to my phenomenal son, Greg, his wife Hannah and our fabulous/glorious/perfect granddaughter Evie, author of seventeen books on spirituality, stewardship, congregational development, research, and spiritual gifts discovery, and an advocate for a more loving, inclusive church for the 21st century and beyond.
Driving past a church this morning, I noted that the Nativity scene was already down (sorry Wise Men — snooze, ya’ lose. Wouldn’t want to honor Epiphany by accident or on purpose…) and Mary and Joseph were laying face down in the snow and the baby Jesus was buried under […]
I surf a lot of sites and listen in on a lot of discussion threads about what people choose and choose not to believe. What is interesting is that both sides deny they are making a choice about what to believe. Dogmatism swings both ways, and many loud voices on […]
No, it’s not a generic wish for peace on earth, but a specific wish for those of us calling ourselves “Christian.” I wish that we — collectively and individually –could provide an example to the whole world of mercy, justice, civility, kindness, grace, acceptance, love, and joy, so that people […]
Part of what makes the Christmas story so phenomenal is that we know how it all turns out. We know who Jesus is. His birth narrative — for us — is nothing more than a remembrance. It is the story of the genesis of God’s redemptive act. It is the […]
There is a special kind of snow — it falls not in flakes, but in hunks. It drifts down in surreal, tumbling patterns and sticks to everything. It muffles all sound. It transforms the world into a snowglobe. There is nothing I love more than walking in such snow, and it […]
Okay, this falls into the “so insignificant you probably shouldn’t waste time reading it” category, but an amazing thing has happened this year: it feels like Christmas! And the only thing that has changed (other than my job, the state in which I live, the house in which I live, […]
Mortality is a scary thing. I’m not dying, but much of what I have written is. As of December 31, almost every book I have written for Discipleship Resources is going out of print. (The one exception is Vital Signs, but its days are numbered as well…) Part of my […]
In the not too distant past I sat listening to a United Methodist clergyperson talk about the gifts of the Spirit — a topic in which I have great interest and long involvement. I truly believe that we are imbued with gifts that transcend mere ability or interest. These gifts enable […]
Any unexpected December illness in our household growing up was referred to as reindeer flu… and I’ve got it. Complete physical meltdown over the past 72 hours. Fever, chills, explosive expulsions out every orifice, aches, pains, moaning, cough, congestion… you name it, I got it. Now I am sitting in […]
We all know Christmas is more about giving than receiving, yet the most significant Christmases of all for me are those where through giving I received more than I can describe or explain. There is a magical truth in the simple fact that there is no truly unselfish gift. People […]
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