I pastor a strange church. A few years ago I began to refer to it as The Land of Misfit Christians 1. It’s about as good a description as any. Central Baptist is filled with people who have odd senses of humor, a goofy relationship with formality, and an uneasy truce with social convention. We…
Tag: Church
I am weary
To my fellow disciples of Jesus Christ. I am weary. I am weary of being viewed as “suspect” because of the translation of the Bible I read, my ignorance of the latest Christian music, or because I have a mistrust of large-event evangelism. I'm your brother in Christ, and we are called to proclaim the…
New Tricks!
Today I did one of the most fun pastoral tasks I've ever been blessed to do. To understand why it was so amazing, I need to give some background. Central Baptist, where I serve as pastor, is just a few blocks from Riverview Estates, the retirement home attached to my denomination. It's a wonderful place,…
New Role
This past weekend my wife and I were honored to become the godparents for our friend's youngest child. The idea of godparents is not one common to the Baptist tradition, but it's one we really need to reconsider. The idea that there would be special people in a child's life, other than the parents, who…
The powerful reach of friendship
When I was in college, I remember a day when the pastor of a local church came and spoke to the Student Chaplains. During his chat, he expressed his desire to help students who were interested in pursuing pastoral ministry gain some practical preaching experience. It was an amazing offer. For the next four years…
Ten Years
This past Sunday marked my tenth year at Central Baptist. I was thirty when I arrived with my wife, bringing along two small children to an unknown landscape. Even though I grew up fourteen miles from where I now live, I frequently had to point to folks that my understanding of New Jersey geography consisted…
