More Practical Ways to Love & Abide

Last Sunday, I preached about the deeply theological, but sometimes difficult ways to do two things Jesus tells us to do: to love and to abide. This morning, during my prayers, I read these two passages from Scripture: Leviticus 19:1-18 and 1 Thessalonians 5:12-28 which give us even more practical examples of how to do these things.

First, in Leviticus, as the Lord is giving the people of Israel more instruction on how to be holy, through Moses the Lord lays out a few practical examples: Read more

Let Holy Week Interrupt Your Life, April 1-6

As you read this, Holy Week is upon us. For those who may not have grown up with Holy Week as a part of your life, this is the week before Easter, and is without a doubt the most important week in the church year. It is marked by a number of services that lead to the cross on Good Friday. Different churches celebrate Holy Week in different ways. Some, like St. Nicholas, do services every day of Holy Week because it sets that week apart from all other weeks. We hear the events that lead to Jesus’ crucifixion and death. Many would say that without experiencing these services, we have no frame of reference for what Easter really means.

However, the attendance at these services tends to be extremely low. If this is the most important week of the church year, why don’t people participate? Read more

The Hiking/Walking Priest

“Are you still hiking, Fr. Jeff?”

Confession time. The answer is “not as much.” While I certainly love to get up on the Pine Mountain Trail, I’ve allowed my calendar to overtake my hiking time. I used to start my Monday mornings with a 2-3 hour hike, but since adding Grey to the family, adding Bronwyn to school, and adding Katie to the staff, these hikes have become few and far between. Having an administrative assistant has been a tremendous help, so I find that having her allows more time in visiting people, and sometimes Monday mornings work better for folks. That’s not a complaint by any means, as this has only enhanced my ministry at St. Nicholas, but it does change my frequency of hiking. Read more

War of the Surplice

If you look around the inside of an Episcopal Church, you can easily glance over some things for which people have bled and died over. Everything from placements of the altar, to the candles on the altar, to the garb of the clergy, there have been some interesting battles fought in the Christian church.

Take the surplice.

Read more

Governor Perry & Being The Church

There’s been a lot of discussion on the internet and in the news about Governor Rick Perry’s latest television ad. Some of you may agree or disagree with Gov. Perry, and I’m not really interested in bashing the guy over his opinions about homosexuals in the military or prayer in school (although he did tackle quite a few things in such a few sentences!). He certainly has a right to those opinions, and I imagine he has lots of support and lots of opponents.

Besides all the issues he tried to address in his ad, the thing that struck me was in his first words: “I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m a Christian, but you don’t need to be in the pew every Sunday to know…” Here is a politician who is both making a religious stand and at the same time giving permission to not be in church. Read more

Parable of the Hiking Father & Children

One of the things I love about living here is having the opportunity to hike. But something that makes life even grander is when my kids express that they want to hike with me.

While the last couple of weeks have been quite hectic, with tornados and all, I did find time to go hiking with my kids on two separate occasions. First, a few weeks ago, Liam and I were itching for some alone time together, so when I mentioned that I was going hiking Monday morning, he asked in his 2-year-old voice, “Can I go hiking with you, Da?” How could I resist?

Liam and I parked at the Overlook Parking Lot, and hiked about a mile up the PMT and back. He did really well for a 2-year-old, and I only had to pick him up and carry him about a half a mile back. Hiking with a 2-year-old on your shoulders is no small feat, so I got quite a workout. He and I ended our trip with a picnic. The benefit of doing this is that when I got him home, he was exhausted and slept for 2 hours! Read more

St. Nicholas is a _______-Driven Church

At the beginning of our Vestry meetings, we spend 20 to 30 minutes at the beginning on formation. I will lead a devotion, or throw out some discussion questions. At our October meeting last week, I read a reading from a book called Beyond Business As Usual by Neal O. Michell. In the reading, Michell talks about Rick Warren’s popular book The Purpose-Driven Church, which many church leaders are using these days to inspire spiritual growth in their congregations. Michell talks about using this book with his own Vestry and, drawing on Warren’s work, asked the Vestry to reflect and discuss on what drives their church. In other words, he asked them to fill in the blank: “Our church is a _____-driven church.”

He talked about how one person on the Vestry claimed that the church was “crisis-driven,” based on their rocky history. This was a turning point for his Vestry and his congregation, as they moved from “crisis-driven” to something more positive.

So at our Vestry meeting, I decided to ask the same question of our Vestry. I asked them to reflect on the last few month in the congregation, our last few Vestry meetings, and be honest about what was driving our church today. I gave them all index cards to write on and some time to think about it. After watching them write for a few minutes, I collected the cards and read them aloud. I’m not sure what I expected, but here were their answers: Read more

A Tale of Two Clergy Conferences