“then God said, “let us make human beings in our image, to be like us.” – genesis 1:26, NLT this past week i saw a flurry of facebook posts about john piper’s latest words about masculine christianity. i am pretty out of the blog-reading circuit because there are only so many hours in the day […]
Read Morelet's be friends. oh wait, we don't know how to!
“there is nothing on this earth to be more prized than true friendship.” – st. thomas aquinas remember that book, “all i ever needed i learned in kindergarten”? sure, some of what we learned when we were five would be helpful to us as grownups. but i’m also going to make a supposition that even […]
Read Morebecoming better human beings
in the first few years of the refuge there were days when i really just wanted to throw in the towel. i often wonder why in the $*!^$&!(!)# i care so much about all of this. really. in the big scheme of things we are a little blip in the universe, just a teeny weeny […]
Read Moreco-pastoring part 3: here's what it looks like here
i am in the middle of a series on co-pastoring or shared leadership, just processing some thoughts out loud about it because I think it is far under-looked as a potential model for leadership in communities & organizations. you can watch the first two video conversations here: co-pastoring – part 1 co-pastoring – part 2 […]
Read Morecopastoring part 2 – a video conversation
this is part 2 in a 5 part series i’m doing here on co-pastoring & shared leadership. if you missed it, you can watch the first video conversation with my friend & refuge teammate karl wheeler. one of the things we talk about in this piece is the difference between roles & relationship. this is […]
Read Moresome thoughts on co-pastoring, part 1
when i first started this blog over 3 years ago i wrote a little post about shared leadership that still gets a lot of play–why i believe in co-pastoring. it makes me happy that people are at least considering the idea enough to do a google search on it & read more about it. 5 […]
Read More5 years. 5 years? 5 years!
this past weekend the refuge celebrated our 5 year birthday. it’s really hard to believe that over 5 years have really passed. when we first started, as so many of you know, we were beaten & bloody, armed only with some dreams for “what could be” and coming out of a rough experience from serving […]
Read Morewhy sometimes i get sad
last month a mainline pastor from a small town outside of denver got in touch with me to see if i would be willing to come speak to their high school’s baccalaureate service in may. they were looking for a female pastor, someone who would inspire the kids & open up some doors that hadn’t […]
Read Moreover, under, beside
“there is always warfare in our hearts; there is always the struggle between pride and humility, hatred and love, forgiveness and the refusal to forgive, truth and the concealment of truth, openness and closedness. each one of us is walking in that passage towards liberation, growing on the journey towards wholeness and healing…” – jean […]
Read Morethese things shouldn't be all that crazy…
sometimes i have fun conversations with other people who have crazy ideas about “church”, too. whenever i do, i always say “well, it’s great to know we’re not crazy. or maybe if we are, at least we’re not alone.” when i said it this past week i added–it’s really crazy that these ideas are often […]
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