Church conference season
It’s church conference season. This past weekend seven of us from CMC went up to Milwaukee to attend the Central District Conference annual gathering. There are 45 congregations within CDC, including three new members, affirmed by delegate vote: Americus (Georgia), Emmanuel (Sarasota, Florida), and Jubilee (Bellefontaine, Ohio). CDC has a…
Thoughts on marriage
On Sunday Abbie and I celebrated our 18th anniversary. We decided our marriage is now officially an adult. I don’t think we get a third vote at the polls. Life has been full of what feels like very adult tasks – raising a family, maintaining a property, work responsibilities. My…
(Almost) Ordination time
In a week and a half we have a unique occasion for celebration – Pastor Mark will be ordained for pastoral ministry. Mennonite theology values the priesthood of all believers. We all have access to the Divine and share in the call to embody the healing and reconciling ministry of…
Retirements
Yesterday I attended the convocation chapel at the Methodist Theological School in Ohio (MTSO) which honored the careers or retiring professors Dr. John Kampen and Dr. Linda Mercadante. Both have Mennonite ties. John and his wife Carol are long time members of Cincinnati Mennonite Fellowship where I pastored prior to…
Membership, Centers, and Boundaries
This month we’re welcoming 16 new members into CMC. Four joined this past Sunday. Another 12 will join this coming Sunday. As has become our custom, we’ll hear brief reflections from each of them. We’ll share Communion, served by new members. And we’ll recite together our Membership Commitment statement –…
Sketching the story
Even though I’ve had my back to it for much its creation, The Sketch (feels like it should be capitalized) has been a rich part of Lent worship. The idea came out of an initial observation that the scripture readings for each week of Lent this year contain key images…
Retreat and vision
Last Saturday the CMC Leadership Team had a retreat. For newer folks, LT is the church board. An annual board retreat is part of a church structure model we’ve been moving toward in the last couple years. We’re taking our cues from Dan Hotchkiss’s book Governance and Ministry: Rethinking Board…
Swamped
These past two weeks I’ve had an unusually high amount of conversations with CMC folks who are overwhelmed with their jobs. Overly busy, swamped, worn down, exhausted, exasperated. I started noticing a pattern last week, then it kept coming. This is likely not an unusual condition. It’s just unusual for…
A big breakfast table
This morning I attended the Interfaith Justice Table. It’s a monthly breakfast, convened by Rev. Dan Clark, Ohio Director of Faith in Public Life. There were about 30 of us – mostly clergy and leaders of various faith driven not for profit advocacy groups. There were some common commitments that…
Practicing awareness on the move
This Lent season our worship focus is Practicing Awareness. For our family, this coincides with settling in to a new house. There’s nothing like moving to raise your awareness. How many boxes does it take to clean out a closet? A garage? When you move, just about everything calls for…
