In late April and early May, my VBS leaders and I began wrestling with what to do with VBS this year. We felt skeptical that things would be open enough for us to offer in-person VBS. We felt even more skeptical that people would come if we did...
I grew up with what can only be described as an eclectic Christmas tree: Gold ornaments from my grandparents hung alongside Hallmark ornaments as well as homemade ornaments. One of my mom’s all-time favorite ornaments is an angel I made when I was...
Today, a friend asked me how my family’s vacation last week was.
I replied, “It was awesome!” to which he replied, “Tell me more about this place you went to.”
He knew we’d gone to an all-inclusive family-friendly resort in New York State –...
During our first day in San Diego with The Global Immersion Project, we met with a young woman named Nohemi. Although she didn't know it until she was older, Nohemi came to the US undocumented as a young child. She worked hard in school to earn...
In this never-ending election cycle, immigration has been a source of constant debate amongst our candidates. As a long-time refugee champion, I have some definite feelings about refugee policies & quotas. Yet, I'll be the first to admit that...
Life is full right now... So much so that it's taken me a solid week to get this blog posted. It's better late than never, though, right?
What I'm Reading:
Fiction:
I read 8 fiction books during the last two months. My favorites...
Recently, my congregation participated in a church-wide, intergenerational day of service. As part of this, we launched people into their service experiences straight from worship. People then served in three areas for two hours each before...
One finding that's stuck with me from Sticky Faith is, "More than any program or event, what made kids more likely to feel like a significant part of their local church was when adults made the effort to get to know them."
One of the best ways my...
I’m an introvert. I love people, but I hate large groups and I despise small talk.
This means that my least favorite time of Sunday mornings is “coffee hour”. I dread this time so much so that most weeks, I make a mad dash from worship to the...
On Wednesday, I saw two of the women from my congregation who my students recently visited during my youth ministry’s interviews with the saints. Both spoke enthusiastically about how much they enjoyed their conversation with our young people....