Message Received
Last week approximately 20-30 children gathered at the church every evening between Sunday and Thursday for Vacation Bible School. A big thanks to all who helped make VBS possible this year. It would not have happened without the willing and graceful leadership of organizers, teachers, snack preparers, game leaders, craft…
Marches and Parades
A couple of months ago, I was having breakfast with a friend of mine and the conversation turned toward my experience as a gay man. Because this woman is a friend and because she showed a genuine interest in hearing about my experiences, I was happy to share some of…
The Things We Take With Us
Last week I had the opportunity to attend a theatre production, and when I walked in I could not shake the feeling that I knew one of the ushers. I wracked my brain trying to remember how I knew this woman, but it just would not come to me. It…
Peace on My Mind
This past Monday I had the opportunity to attend the Student Peace Conference at OSU. It was a really nice event, and it was exciting to see so many young people interested in learning about peacemaking. There was not much sustained conversation about any one topic, but I thought I…
Knowing in Our Bones
Since being called to serve as a “Pastor of Christian Formation,” I often find myself thinking about the notion of formation. How are we formed? Who are we being formed to be? In what ways is our formation either conscious or unconscious, explicit or implicit? What does Christian formation look…
Commitment and the Art of Mentoring
In a few weeks, on February 1, six of the youth in our congregation will be leading us in the Coming of Age Celebration. As part of that worship service, we will also be kicking off the Mentoring Program by officially matching up each of the youth with a mentor…
Joyfully Unafraid
Two weekends ago, Joel and I both had the opportunity to be a part of Fabulous, Fierce, and Sacred: A Gathering of Anabaptist lgbtqa* Community in Chicago, and I wanted to take some time to reflect on that experience. For those that don’t know, the conference was planned by various…
Enlarging Our Horizons
These past couple weeks have been quite eventful for Columbus Mennonite Church because of all the press we have received related to my installation. I really appreciated Joel’s thoughts from last week’s blog about how we might respond to people who do not affirm the congregation’s decision to call me…
Important Work
(This is my first foray into the world of mid-week blogging, so I apologize for turning it into a late-to-mid-week blog instead. If you’re anything like me, the weekend still feels far enough away that it might as well still be midweek. I welcome your comments.) A couple weeks…
