on the walk

Everytime I encounter a “new” heretical idea I always hope they are right (that it will be new). But alas that hope is always unfulfilled. Oprah Winfrey has been promoting heresy with increasing clarity over the last few years. Brian Jones has some straight talk on her latest project that includes a link to a helpful article. If you are an Oprah fan or know someone who is, you might want to check it out.

on the walk

-Ethan

My son (he’s five) has been reading the Bible lately.

We have had a Children’s bible for some time, but as he has begun to read on his own, we bought a new Bible that is even easier to read and he has been reading it a lot. It is wonderful. He is so excited that he can read the stories for himself and is pleased to be able to share in these stories that he knows are so important to our family.

There have been a few complicated side-effects, mostly due to the complicated questions that my son has begun to ask. Tonight’s complicated questions were about Saul. He was reading the early sections of the David story. He asked, “Daddy, is Saul a good guy or a bad guy?” I answered carefully, “Well, he does somethings that are good but then he later does lots of things that are bad. So I guess he is both.” Continue Reading »

If I discover within myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

C.S. Lewis

I heard from my mom that a dear lady named Cookie Helsabeck passed away. She was friend in Tennessee. I am not able to write a fitting tribute to her remarkably lived life. She was the kind of person who made so many feel loved. In particular, she lived a life that was not bound to this earth. She loved life and lived it well, but she lived it with a trajectory toward her true home.

on the walk

-Ethan

My family recently visited Tennessee. Tennessee is still my home. I warned the boys that I might be grumpy for a few days after our return because leaving Tennessee always leaves me homesick. I am glad to be serving in Maryland, and have no doubts that it is the right place for this season of my ministry, but there is something easy and secure about life in Tennessee that is hard for me to quite express. Being homesick however always reminds me of my favorite experiential argument for the existence of God. Continue Reading »

I am on a metaphor hunt.

I posted about gun barrels a few days back. I can’t stop thinking about this issue but the metaphor doesn’t sing for me.

First a few more thoughts on the issue. I easily can get drawn into an institution growth mindset. I love the church. I love Bible studies, and pot lucks. I love softball games and theological debates. I love weddings, and choirs. I love cantatas and seminaries. But in that love there is a great danger. I might be so excited to be in the church that I lose sight of God’s purpose for me. Continue Reading »

I don’t normally think in violent metaphors, and I am not a big fan of guns. (I have fond memories of a pump action BB gun, a fence and coke cans, but that is as far as my fond gun memories go.) But lately I have been thinking about gun barrels. Continue Reading »

I often deride myself for having too little faith in the power of prayer.  It is hard for me to face again calling on God to act when it seems that many times God has not acted.

Yet even amidst my doubt I found new evidence that I fundamentally do believe in the power of prayer.

Here is my evidence: I don’t want to pray about my church’s capital campaign.

Just to be clear, I am on the staff of the church.  I believe in the centrality of the local church and this one that I serve is a particularly good one.

I believe in the goals of the campaign. I have been bragging to all my friends that it is so exciting to be a part of a church that has a campaign that is so outwardly focused and so ministry focused. (Very little of our funds are going toward bricks and mortar.  Most of our campaign goals are for other places and other churches.)

So I support the campaign, but I don’t want to pray about it for one very simple reason.  I know that if I pray about it, God will change my heart.  God will inspire me.  God will challenge me.  God will stretch me to sacrifice and give beyond what I want to give.

I sometimes feel like there really is only one prayer: “Not my will, but thine be done.”

I believe that God responds to prayer.  I know that I believe because I am afraid to pray.

on the walk

-Ethan

He keeps rolling with good stuff.

Check it out.

on the walk

-Ethan

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday. (If you don’t know what that is you can look here for a short but clear explanation.) I was able to help plan a service at my church. It was a powerful and wonderful day, and a few over 400 people showed up. It was a self-paced directed prayer experience.

One of the ideas on which it focuses is the intertwined judgment and mercy of God. This idea that God’s mercy is what makes me seek God as my judge and that God’s righteousness is what makes me seek God as the agent of mercy in my life has become increasingly important to me. I wrote a reading for this service last year that articulates these thoughts. I had kind of forgotten it and when i reread it this year, it was an overwhelming experience for me. If you are interested and missed the service, you can take a look here. (You will probably need to zoom in to see it easily.)

on the walk

-Ethan

Last Saturday night, my colleague Susan Owens, delivered a beautiful homily on the call of Christian leadership.  Her text was Jesus confrontation with Peter recorded in John 21.  In this encounter, Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves Jesus.  Three times Peter acknowledges his love, and three times Peter is called to care for Jesus’ sheep. Continue Reading »