• How can we have an effective pastorate? • How can our ministries, our preaching, support church health? • How can we be faithful in our ministries? There is a parable for young preachers in Walt Disney's Dumbo, the little circus elephant that Continue Reading
March 22, 2013 2 Comments
Thoughts on Faith from a Garden in March and Pastoral Ministry
For a gardener, like myself, March is an in-between month. The dried, gray-brown stalks on the oak leaf hydrangea, left over from last autumn, stand at attention, like a proud, old war veteran in his outdated, ill-fitting military uniform. And like a Continue Reading
March 12, 2013
Difficult but Necessary: Relinquishing Leadership in Winter to Renew in Another Season of Ministry
March 11, 2013 Dearly Beloved in the Lord: I greet you in the name of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. I write you to also make an announcement that must come on the heels of a series of providences that both surprised me and have tried me—body and Continue Reading
February 16, 2013
Why This Presbyterian is Praying for the Next Pope
The picture on the opinion page of the Wall Street Journal, page A13, has a picture of lightning flashing over St. Peter's Basilica from last Monday when Pope Benedict XVI announced that he would step down. The picture is worth 1000 words, or at least Continue Reading
January 24, 2013
Are You Called to be a Military Chaplain?
Frequently I am asked to share my experience of the call to the chaplain ministry. In my case, I have served and continue to serve as a US Army Reserve chaplain, not an active duty chaplain. Yet the call to give one's life to the work of the Lord in this Continue Reading
January 14, 2013
A Promise to the Persecuted Church Today
Yesterday I had the privilege of meeting a new student at RTS who has sacrificed much to come to this seminary to prepare for a life of service to the Church back in his persecuted nation. It took some creative and Providential work to get that young man Continue Reading
December 28, 2012
The Best: A Charge to our Married Men in Seminary and a Letter to All
My beloved students in Christ, I write to you, as this old year is winding down, and we count off the hours before a new one, to remind you of the best gift God has given you. It is not your gift to preach. It is not your gift to counsel. It is not your Continue Reading
November 25, 2012
Christ the King Sunday: Not Waiting Long Enough for Advent to Begin
For those who observe the church seasons, and I must admit that the older I am more satisfied with the rhythms of the life of Jesus, and the traditions of the Church, than the calendars that commemorate this world. We almost missed Christ the King Continue Reading
November 22, 2012 Leave a Comment
A Divine Recipe for a Transformative Thanksgiving: An Exposition of Psalm 100
I want to bring you a message taken from the Psalms that forms the core of our hymnody—the old 100th—“A Psalm of praise.” But the Hebrew word for Praise here, is the same word that is later translated “Thanksgiving.” It is the Hebrew word Continue Reading
November 8, 2012
Am I a Soldier of the Cross? A Message from Psalm 27
The Christian life is a life of undisturbed joy. The Christian life is a life of unending battles. Both of these statements are true. And that calls for help. For it is humanly impossible to hold two such polarized truths in our hearts at the same time. Continue Reading
