Faith is…
Jim Wallis, longtime leader of the progressive evangelical organization Sojourners, is fond of saying that faith is always personal, but never private. Faith ought to deeply impact us on the personal level, but, as Wallis’ saying goes, personal doesn’t mean private. Faith, by its nature, affects the kinds of…
Telling our story
Toward the end of last year The Mennonite magazine put out an invitation to submit articles on the theme of race and faith. I wrote about our congregation’s journey last year. It has just been posted on The Mennonite website, and I’m copying the text below as well. By…
Informed compassion
Here’s another sign of the strange times we live in: Today, while driving back and forth to Lima Mennonite Church for a CDC pastor peer meeting, listening to the recent five part series by On the Media called Busted: America’s Poverty Myths, I found myself being encouraged by these…
Mis-remembering King
In August of 1966, three years after his “I have a dream speech,” a Gallup poll found that Martin Luther King Jr’s national popularity had fallen to a 63% negative rating. Only 12% of all Americans registered a “highly favorable” opinion of King. In the remaining year and a…
2016 at CMC
What a wild, and sometimes tumultuous ride 2016 was. Before we get too far along in 2017, here’s a snapshot of what happened in the life of this congregation last year. It was a full year. We intentionally confronted racism and affirmed that black lives matter. We did some work…
Joyful is the dark
Today is the first day of winter and tonight is the longest night of the year, the winter solstice. These last couple weeks I’ve been pleasantly surprised to hear a number of people comment how much they like the darkness of this season. Darkness can simplify life. Darkness gives us…
Incarnatio continua
The word incarnation captures well the mystery of Advent and Christmas. Through incarnation, the Divine takes on flesh, and becomes a touchable presence. Western Christianity has emphasized the uniqueness of Jesus as the incarnate One, an outpouring and overflowing of the love of the Father/Mother/Source of All Being. Eastern…
Stealing leaves. November, 2016.
I wrote this poem yesterday as another step in processing the moral climate of our country. “Stealing leaves. November, 2016.” “This is the first time I’ve seen anyone stealing leaves.” My neighbor had caught me in the act, wheelbarrow loaded full with bags full of leaves he had…
The trouble is…
I subscribe to a daily meditation through a project called Inward/Outward. It’s nothing more than a short quote each day. This morning’s quote was from Anne LeClaire from her writing Listening Below the Noise. It said, “The trouble is, not knowing what to say, too often we say something…
Collaboration and Confrontation
The last two mornings I’ve taken part in conversations that have me thinking about how change happens, and the role of collaboration and confrontation. The first was one of the many “Big Table” conversations Tuesday, sponsored by the Columbus Foundation. The question of the day was how we might…
