Weekly Blog

Depending on how long you have been around The United Methodist Church, the words Social Principles may mean very different things to you. Some of you know them well. Our Spirited Women, for example, studied a previous version together in 2020. Some of you may remember conversations about our Social Principles from Sunday school classes, Annual Conference, or debates within the denomination. And for others, my recent preaching may be the first time you have heard the words at all. So, before we get much farther into our year of commUNITY: Living God’s Dream Together, I thought it might be worth answering a pretty basicRead More →

I’m breaking one of the rules. For nearly twenty years, the Rev. Dr. Gennifer Brooks, my preaching professor, has lived rent-free in my head. Those of us who took some of Dr. Brooks’s earliest preaching classes share this experience. I wouldn’t call it a support group. But maybe it is. Dr. Brooks had rules for preaching. Lots of rules and I still follow most of them. They have served me remarkably well. One was this: Let the sermon go. After preaching on Sunday, reflect for a little while. Learn from what worked or what didn’t. Then kick your feet up, watch a game or takeRead More →

For the past few weeks, we’ve spent a lot of time with Woody, Buzz, Jessie, and their friends—and even more importantly, with Jesus’ words in John 15. Be Loved. Be Kind. Be You. Be Brave. When Pastor Heather and I first answered the call to build a worship series around Toy Story, one of our hopes was simply to find a creative, intergenerational way into the good news of Jesus. But along the way, I’ve realized there is another benefit to a series like this: it gives parents, grandparents, and all the adults who love children a language for carrying these conversations home. Because asRead More →

By the time you read this, I should be driving somewhere in western Kansas, probably wondering why I didn’t fly to Colorado Springs. Every year about hour six of the drive, that question occurs to me. But by the time I get farther west, I remember why I drive. The two-day trip has become something of a labyrinth for me: a long, slow way of unwinding, laying down some of the burdens I’ve been carrying, and deciding which ones God might actually be asking me to pick back up. My destination is a little 500-square-foot, off-the-grid cabin in the Wet mountains of Colorado that I’mRead More →

I think it was about three years ago that large language models like ChatGPT entered the mainstream conversation. Mostly for fun, I asked one AI model to write a church blog about Lent. What came back was…fine. At its best, it was a middle-school one-page paper on Lent. It knew what Lent was. It could string together some inspiring thoughts. It sounded vaguely churchy. But it didn’t really say anything about what Lent meant for us. I remember thinking, “Well, this is interesting, but I’m not too worried about it taking my job.” A lot has changed in three years. Today, I use AI nearlyRead More →

A couple of weeks ago at Annual Conference, Bishop Schwerin “fixed the appointments.” That is one of those wonderfully odd Methodist phrases that sounds, at first, like something was broken and needed repair. But in this case, “fixed” means set. The bishop sets the pastoral appointments for another year of ministry, and clergy and congregations receive those appointments as part of our shared covenant in The United Methodist Church. So, with gratitude, I am glad to share that this marks my tenth appointment year at The United Methodist Church of Geneva: four years as your associate pastor and now six years as your senior pastor.Read More →

A couple of weeks ago, we stood with the disciples on the lakeshore, staring at five loaves, two fish, and a crowd far larger than anyone could reasonably feed. The math did not work. The need was too great. The offering was too small. And yet Jesus said, “Bring them here to me.” Then Jesus took what was offered, blessed it, broke it open, and gave it back until everyone was fed and there were baskets left over. As I said in the sermon on April 26th, “Every gift matters. Every offering goes into the basket. And Jesus takes what’s in the basket and doesRead More →

I had this thought the other day what if someone strapped a GoPro to a pastor during a capital campaign season? I was inspired by those video where you put a camera on your outdoor pet and watch the footage to see where they’ve been. (You can watch one of these videos here, but it might make you motion sick.) If you put one on me, you wouldn’t just see the public moments you are most used to like on Sunday morning. We’d see the meetings, the conversations, the in-between spaces and a lot of time at the computer. I’m sure it wouldn’t make forRead More →

Every couple of years, I find myself coming back to this question. ‘What Happens on Holy Saturday?’ The day between Good Friday and Easter. At our house, we kind of joke that I’ve turned Holy Saturday into “project day.” I’m out in the yard or fixing something. Maybe I’m changing light fixtures or changing the oil. Whatever it is, I’m mostly keeping busy, distracting myself from the pressure of Easter morning. And this year will barely be different. We’ll be with my extended family and packing to head out of town, getting ready to travel to Mississippi to help a friend with bereavement work nextRead More →

There are weeks that move quickly, and then there is Holy Week. This is the week where the story of Jesus slows down. We’re invited not to rush ahead to Easter morning, but to walk step by step with Jesus. Through the cheers of Palm Sunday, into the tension of the temple, around the table, and ultimately to the cross… and the shock and quiet that follows. Sometimes I think many of us don’t quite know what to do with all of that. We believe this week and its story matters. So, we show up. And still, the weight of this set- apart week canRead More →

I hesitate to write this. Not because it isn’t worth saying, but because I’m still child-rearing in the church myself. And I know the last thing a child-rearing adult wants is uninvited attention on what their kids are doing. So, parents and caregivers, let me be clear from the start: this is written with overflowing gratitude and respect—from your senior pastor and fellow child-rearer. Lately I’ve found myself admiring the church we are growing into. I see it on Sunday mornings. I know that what happens in our classrooms is deeply formational. I see it in the kids who show up week after week. IRead More →

Recently our worship planning team gathered around the zoom screen to dream about Holy Week and Easter. There were calendars and hymnals, half-formed ideas and bold ones. We asked the usual questions, how might this idea work? How might this year be experiential, not just something we watch but something we step into? Spoiler alert: it’s going to be very experiential this year. And here’s the double spoiler, we’re ending Easter morning singing the Hallelujah Chorus with choir, organ, and string quartet! I love that one. It’s a favorite for many of us. When I was growing up, my home church sang it a fewRead More →

Over the past few weeks, I’ve had several people ask me some version of this question: “Pastor, someone I care about, someone I’ve been at odds with for a long time, is suddenly questioning or shifting their hard position. How do I engage without telling them, ‘I told you so’?” I admire such honest questions and the care for another person in them, but I’ll admit there is a small, self-satisfied part of us that wants to win the moment. We have carried conviction. We have endured disagreement. We have sometimes felt dismissed. And now, suddenly, the ground is moving. So, what do we doRead More →

Back in seminary, I was pretty focused. I wanted to finish in the standard three years, which meant electives were precious. I only had space for one elective in the New Testament and one in the Old Testament. So, when a new professor, Dr. Gambrell, offered his first class on the Psalms, my friends were excited. Dr. Gamble was just a few years older than we were. He helped lead chapel, wrote prayers, designed worship, and had that rare combination of intellect and creativity that made him, well, kind of cool. A few friends encouraged me to take the class with them. I remember thinking,Read More →

Last week I blogged about some of my internal struggles. (I promise I don’t want this space to become my public therapy journal). But I’ve also been noticing a tension through pastoral conversations that many of us seem to be living in lately.  It’s that strange in-between season. The betwixt and between. The moment when you get bad news… and then still laugh to the point of tears in conversation with a friend. When you’re crying over the world and still manage to stand in awe at nature.  Sometimes the ache is personal, like a diagnosis, a loss, and a hard decision. Other times, it’s the kind of ache we absorb just by reading the news: war, disaster, political chaos, injustice. And yet, not everything is terrible. That’s part of the tension, too.  We live inRead More →

When I chose the date for our Foundations & Futures Luncheon on January 7, I knew from the start that not everyone who loves this church would be able to attend. That’s simply the reality of full calendars and faithful lives. So, if you weren’t there, please know this first: you were missed, you are valued, and the heart of what we shared belongs to you too.  Now earlier this week we shared part of what happened that afternoon: a first look at the 1874 Project. That work matters deeply. Caring for our building is essential to our witness, our accessibility, and our ability to serve generations to come. But as important as bricks and budgets are, we know they are not the whole story. Read More →

At the start of a new year, I often find myself praying about both where we’ve been and where God may be calling us next. Like many pastors, I pay attention to national trends in church life, not because we’re trying to follow the crowd, but because patterns in the wider Church often help us see ourselves more clearly.  One of the voices I return to each year is Carey Nieuwhof, a Canadian church leader and writer who does an excellent job curating trends, particularly around church leadership, digital culture, and generational shifts. And every year, I’m struck by how closely the data tracks with our local experience here in Geneva. So, what might 2026 hold for churchesRead More →

As 2025 comes to a close, it feels right to pause not to measure success, but to remember. To notice where God showed up among us. To listen again for how Jesus shaped us, stretched us, and stayed with us, guided by the quiet, persistent work of the Holy Spirit. If I had to name this year with one phrase, I think it would be this: we spent the year with Jesus and we trusted the Spirit to lead us along the way. From Advent through Pentecost, our worship life intentionally lingered with Jesus. We stayed close to his birth and early life, his ministryRead More →

As 2025 comes to a close, it feels right to pause not to measure success, but to remember. To notice where God showed up among us. To listen again for how Jesus shaped us, stretched us, and stayed with us, guided by the quiet, persistent work of the Holy Spirit.  If I had to name this year with one phrase, I think it would be this: we spent the year with Jesus and we trusted the Spirit to lead us along the way.  From Advent through Pentecost, our worship life intentionally lingered with Jesus. We stayed close to his birth and early life, his ministry and teachings, his confrontationRead More →

It’s a question that haunts even the best gift-givers this time of year: What do you get for the person who has everything?  We all know someone like that. Maybe they’re retired and downsized, or maybe they just don’t want more stuff. I kinda feel that way myself. And yet, there’s something deep inside us that still wants to give, though, right? Giving gifts are opportunities to connect, to bless, to offer something meaningful.  Of course, that’s what makes the holidays so special. They’re not just about things wrapped up. It’s a season about the kind of gifts that don’t show up on store shelvesRead More →

Sometime between the last slice of pumpkin pie and the long drive home, the world finally, fully shifts. Thanksgiving ends, December presses close, and suddenly we find ourselves standing on the doorstep of Advent again. As you read this, our church is preparing to go through the same transition many of us are making at home. Fall colors are being boxed up. Greens, ribbons, Chrismons, angels, candles, and the first hints of Christmas light are appearing. Volunteers (the unsung saints of the season!) are transforming our space so that when we walk in on Sunday, it feels like the promise of Advent has already begunRead More →

I want to share something that’s been taking shape in the background at church. A small team of leaders has formed a Church Safety Task Force to take a fresh, comprehensive look at how we keep our congregation safe. This group is focusing on four key areas: medical emergencies, severe weather, fire, and threats of violence. Over the years, we’ve written safety plans, filed them away neatly, and hoped we’d never need them. But plans aren’t helpful unless we know them, practice them, and keep them fresh. I know it can be uncomfortable to talk about these things. None of us like imagining worst-case scenariosRead More →

It sounds dramatic, doesn’t it?  “I’ve been given an ultimatum.”  But really, it’s more of an invitation from our Trustees. The carpet in the parsonage has reached the end of its useful life. Recently we discovered beautiful hardwood floors hiding underneath. Instead of replacing the carpet, we’ve opted to refinish the floors.  There’s only one catch: it’s hard to live in a house when your bedrooms and bathrooms are off-limits for several days. So, the Trustees have issued their “ultimatum” that we have to go somewhere for a few weeks. They didn’t have to twist my arm at all.  As I stared at that wornRead More →

One of the habits that shapes me is starting each day with Scripture. My first 7–12 minutes after waking are spent with an app that offers a short opening prayer, a prayer of confession, two Scripture readings, the Lord’s Prayer, and a blessing for the day. It’s not Bible study or sermon prep. It’s what I do for my own spiritual practice. Bleary-eyed, I simply read it, pray it, let it pass through me. It’s part of my routine as I move on to a workout, then cup of coffee and the day’s tasks. But sometimes a verse lingers. Sometimes the Holy Spirit won’t letRead More →