nashvillian pastoral

So now that my formal leave request is submitted and we have announced to the congregation and etc etc, I can answer the big question:  what...

It was sophomore, or maybe junior year of high school.  (So, 2000 or 2001.)  In a ritual familiar to high school students everywhere, we wer...

This year, for the week I turned 32, I decided to head for the hills.  I had booked four nights at the Hermitage at St. Mary's Sewane...

One of the sweetest privileges of the life of a clergyperson is being invited into people's lives at their critical moments.  At the bir...

There is a phrase tossed around by church people these days, and it sort of just slays me.  I hear it often when people decide to leave my c...

It's time to move on, time to get going. What lies ahead, I have no way of knowing. But under my feet, baby, grass is growing. It...

As we left earlier than usual, fought traffic in the rain, and deliverd the kids to their various schools before I headed to start this ...

Reading like crazy, trying to get all prepped for the big upcoming two-week D.Min. course.  I came across this awesome quote in Bob Farr...

Okay - not quite yet.  Or not for like three more years.  That is, if I can keep up and finish the program. It all started back in August....

You know it's still Advent, right?  The season of waiting and preparation.  And, depending on your tradition of numbering days, it ...

One of my earliest critical questions of the Christianity I was raised in had to do with prayer.  "If God is omniscient, and knows my d...

Christmas Eve preparations, working hard, and beautiful satsumas.  That is all.  Recipe to come Monday.

One of my all-time favorite philosophers and theologians is Soren Kierkegaard.  Not only does he have a super-cool name that can give you bo...

Ministry has to be one of the more difficult callings in the world, because we are frequently called to fail.  Oh no, we are not expected to...

Americans obviously have a lot of problems with personal finance.  We have, on average, astronomical credit card debt.  We frequently buy ho...

We have been a bit delayed in our Godly Play series on Wednesday evenings for a number of reasons.  It takes time that I don't always ha...

Well friends, this seems to be the month of baring my soul.  Forgive me as I rehearse the litany of my privileged-world problems:  Oh why ca...

Preachers talk about the Psalms being notoriously difficult to preach.  They are poetry - song lyrics, really (we just don't know the tu...

We began our Godly Play sessions on Wednesday evening.  Godly Play is a Montessori-inspired faith formation program using story, wondering,...

In 2009, I took a summer course at Vanderbilt Divinity entitled "Church and the City."  It was meant to be a bridge between what c...