“By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. On the willows, there we hung our lyres… O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, blessed is he who repays you as you have done to us. Blessed is he who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.” Psalm 137:1-2,8-9, ESV What are we to … Read More
Taking Care of Yourself as a Pastoral Caregiver
One of the most helpful books I’ve read to date on both giving pastoral care and taking care of myself in the process is Clergy Self-Care by Roy Oswald. Below are my favorite quotes and once you’ve read them, I encourage you to pick your top three and discuss them with your spouse, closest friend, or leadership team: Spiritual healing … Read More
EXCLUSIVE PRAYER & MINISTRY UPDATE- 063021
An unexpected change in our home: By his own choice, my eighty-one-year-old Dad has been living in an assisted living home for the last five years. And, as some of you know, he got and survived Covid-19 in early 2020. Thankfully, the virus didn’t take his life, but it did take a lot out of him and left him less … Read More
What I Learned from Gregory Nazianzus
For most of my adult Christian life, I’ve been convinced that the cross and grace are at the core of the Christian faith. That hasn’t changed. What has is my appreciation for the Trinity as the foundational doctrine that binds all three branches of Christianity together. In my spiritual formation—largely in the evangelical Protestant tradition, the mystery and relational importance … Read More
Why I Believe Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, Part 3 of 3
“Faith, in fact, is what gives fullness to our reasoning… Though every thinking being longs for God… it is powerless… to grasp him… it discovers God through the beauty and order of things seen, using sight as a guide to what transcends sight.” Gregory of Nazianzus (329-390) One of the things I pride myself in is I can still beat … Read More
Why I Believe Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, Part 2 of 3
“Assessing… [the historical worth of the gospels] can be done, if at all, only by the kind of painstaking historical work which I and others have attempted… I simply record it as my conviction that the four canonical gospels, broadly speaking, present a portrait of Jesus of Nazareth which is firmly grounded in real history.” N.T. Wright in Simply Christian: … Read More
Why I Believe Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, Part 1 of 3
When I was a sophomore at Lancaster Bible College, I had the privilege of taking a philosophy class from the school’s most gifted and popular professor at the time. For reasons I won’t go into here, I’ll just call him Bob. Bob had a gift for making difficult subjects like epistemology (the study of how we know stuff) clear and … Read More
Making Sense of “The Fear of the LORD”
Another reason to acknowledge and retain the doctrines of both the universal and redemptive Fatherhood of God is that doing so brings clarity to our understanding of the fear of God. Fear of the LORD is reverential awe. For example, in Psa. 96:4 it says, “For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared … Read More
Exclusive Prayer & Ministry Update- 051321
Hi Friends, We’ve had a beautiful week weather-wise and I’m hoping to take Pam to one of our favorite places Saturday, Longwood Gardens—somewhere we’ve not been since Christmas. And, because they’re just so darn cute and growing fast, I’ve included a recent pic of the grandkids above. Here’s a few highlights from our latest: Personal: We’re grateful that we’re on … Read More
The Universal Fatherhood of God, Part 2 of 2
“The Bible calls on us to develop a theological imagination within which we see the world as a community and not a collection of hostilities.” Esau McCaulley, Reading While Black Jesus said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun … Read More