Anabaptist and Quaker essays, sermons, and other writings
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” 16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying […]
For as long as I can remember, my mother and father have had an incredible ability to identify any bird that they see. This includes all of the typical songbirds you find in rural Pennsylvania, chickadees, wrens, robins, etc; but also the occasional red-tailed hawk, falcon perched on a power […]
Philippians 4:4 – “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say rejoice!” We sing songs about this verse, we memorize it, we embroider it on pillows and hang it in picture frames. Yet like any familiar verse in scripture, we can gain a deeper appreciation for this text as […]
My wife and I celebrated our twenty-first anniversary in late November this year. As I reflect, I continue to thank God for his faithfulness in our lives. I wouldn’t want to say that it has been a bed of roses either. Without God’s intervention, there have been challenges that we […]
The following essay is part one of a series. Please look out for part two on February 17. I have observed while listening to a number of white members of the Church of the Brethren in sermons, articles, and conversations, a tendency for some to articulate a vision of evangelism […]
Wrestling Patience I am being taught patience. When my first few kidney stones came around, I struggled to muster the strength to silence the pain in my body. In all of my eight years of life, I had never known the world as such a painful place. I had never […]
In the beginning as God created, a wind –the spirit of God swept— hovered—over the face of the deep. The first people—Eve and Adam– “heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze…” A swoosh of grass? Crunch of leaves? Abraham […]
When I was invited to write something “equipping”, I’ll admit that I was a little stumped. When it comes to writing these sorts of long-form articles, I tend to struggle a bit with keeping myself focused on one topic or idea. I have an interest in justice, an interest in […]
When I was in seminary, one of my assignments was to develop a Rule of Life. A Rule of Life is a thoughtful, practical plan for how we arrange our lives, giving special attention to what spiritual practices we are going to engage in to support the work of our […]
I have long felt that the job of a pastor falls into two broad categories: facilitating a congregation becoming ever more deeply connected in relationship and true community with one another, and facilitating that community’s outward-facing and -reaching work of ministry, service, and transformative justice with and for the wider […]