As someone who has spent most of my adult life serving local congregations, the opportunities to visit other faith communities for worship have been few and far between. In recent months, however, I have been able to participate in worship in many sacred spaces as a guest. In my final post of 2015 I shared eight images from my "view from the pew" series. Since the start of 2016, I have been fortunate enough to visit an additional eight congregations. Images of these Read More …
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Unique Opportunity to Learn About World Religions (#1614)
Religious literacy is an essential interpersonal competency for all who seek to live well and to relate effectively to other people. The lack of basic religious literacy continues to fuel isolation, hate, and even violence. My belief that all people need to expand their religious literacy beyond their own religion to the world's great religions has inspired me to teach world religions at the college level eighteen times (and counting!). While I cannot invite you to audit my class, I Read More …
Returning to the Classroom (#1604)
2016 is well underway. In just a few more days I will return to the virtual university classroom. This semester I will be teaching three completely full sections of Introduction to World Religions at Hodges University (my 16th, 17th, and 18th times to teach a course on world religions since accepting this adjunct role in 2011). So What? Most regular readers of my blog are religiously literate about their own religion. I wonder, however, how religiously Read More …
So Many Life Changes (#1590)
Whether or not you have ever heard of the Social Readjustment Rating Scale also known as the Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale, you are likely familiar with the idea that people who experience many significant life changes in a relatively short period of time are at an increased risk for illness. This scale is a well known and frequently utilized way to self-assess the amount of change a person has experienced. Each life change has a numeric score associated with it, and the total of Read More …
Ministry Reflection: Getting Started in the UCC (#1569)
On June 30, I concluded 4+ years of service as Director of Adult Education at Naples United Church of Christ (a tenure that also included a shorter stint as IT Manager). This ministry role was my first in the United Church of Christ after serving congregations affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Lutheran (ELCA), and Presbyterian (PCUSA) traditions. Naples UCC Naples UCC is among the flagship churches in the United Church of Christ denomination. Just over 1% Read More …
Christmas Story: Fact or Fable? (#1504)
Over the years I have encountered many passionate people who were not only certain they held the only proper perspective about the Christmas story, but were equally committed to converting others to share such a view. Interestingly, I have been involved in numerous one-on-one and group conversations with those who were certain the Christmas story is a fact as it is recorded in the Gospels and also with those who are certain the story is just a fable. Marcus Borg, a progressive Christian Read More …
My New Role: Transitional Minister (#1488)
I am delighted to announce that effective January 1, 2015 I will begin a new role as Transitional Senior Minister at Fort Myers Congregational UCC (Fort Myers, FL). Process Their current minister, Rev. Phil White, is retiring at the end of this year after serving in that role for the last decade. I have known Phil for several years, and am thankful he extended an invitation to me to serve as a guest preacher this summer. July 20: A Holy Invitation July 27: Persisting for the Read More …
Large Church Salaries (#1472)
Perhaps you had to read the title of this post more than once. Typically, salaries paid to church workers (both lay and ordained staff) are not large. In this post, I consider the latest information on how large churches compensate those they employ based on the Leadership Network / Vanderbloemen 2014 Large Church Salary Report, which was written by Warren Bird. Large churches continue to be far more likely to be growing than smaller churches. This data finds that roughly 3 in Read More …
Summer Shifts (#1449)
Summer has always been one of my favorite seasons of the year. It is also a time when many people temporarily shift their normal routine. I will be making shifts in several areas for the summer, including: Blogging I have published one blog post a day for the last 10 months, and a total of 1,450 since launching this blog in 2009. This will be my last daily post for the summer. I will continue to post on occasion rather than taking a month off as I did last year (a much Read More …
Friday Fun: Church Laws (#1446)
Most people welcome something fun or, better yet, funny as the end of a work week approaches. Rather than deal with the touchy topic of Friday the 13th, I instead share a few of the strangest church laws found in our land. In Boston, it is against the law to eat peanuts while in church. In Omaha, it's illegal to sneeze or burp during a church service. In Texas, it is illegal to go to church in disguise. In Mississippi, private citizens Read More …