Painfully Hopeful

A Wonderful Image

If you viewed the slide-show from the retreat you’ve already seen these images, but I wanted to put them together in sequence because I find them wonderfully provoking. As I progressed out of Evangelicalism™ one of the things I found myself coming back to again and again was the statment, “There is a difference between…

Retreat Reflections

This is belated, but I got stranded in Hershey, PA the day after the retreat so I’m sharing now. This past weekend the Eastern University Student Chaplains held their third annual winter retreat at Central Baptist. It’s a big weekend for me, as my wife and I were both chaplains while we were at Eastern…

Thought Provoking

I’ve been silient on the blog-front for a bit, and I apologize to folks who like to keep up with what I’m thinking. I should probably blog out some of my sermon preparations each week, that would be an interesting exercise (and far warning to folks from Central who happen by). The last couple of…

Wit Whiz…

I’ve been pondering the state of discipleship among Christians in America. I have friends from a wide-range of traditions, Anabaptist, Protestant, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican – and each has brought up similar issues, “Why don’t people want to go deep in their faith?” The reason is that we are used to having thing processed…

A Nice Visit…

I was on vacation this week, so I took the opportunity to visit Spring Mount Mennonite Church, which is where my friend Chris Pastors. When I’m on vacation, but at home, I’ll often just worship at Central Baptist anyway – it’s the worshiping community I’m part of, after all. Frequently, however, I like to go…

2008 Year in Review

OK, a few of my friends are writing their thoughts on the fading year, so I figure I’d join the party. Here’s my thoughts on the previous year. Best Accomplishments Designed in Mission was the most ambitious undertaking I’ve ever done. The idea of bringing together a dozen conversation partners to leave Central with a…