Pastor's Blog

The safety of my frozen lake and gray sky 800 miles in the past, I wait in a winter sun. My bag, filled with virtuosic etudes by Chopin and the Liszt Hungarian Rhapsodies, carries the truly daunting:

The Saturday before last we had Story Day. Story Day is offered for our second graders who are ready to receive instruction to take their First Communion.

Jesus asks this question twice, in the same chapter of Mark 10. “What do you want from me?” How would you answer that? I think I know how I would answer, or at least how I think I would answer...

As promised at the Annual Meeting, we have three town meetings for you to choose from to hear about options for our Southland and to provide feedback. Please...

See these two pictures? I was on my balcony a couple of summers ago and saw these garage gutters sprouting—bursting—with new life!

I think we all know someone who has spoken a word to another in a hurtful way. Then the hurt given is excused because it was spoken in love...

Lent comes early this year with Ash Wednesday coming on Valentine’s Day, February 14.  (Nothing says “I love you” more than taking your sweetheart to a worship service to talk about ashes, sin, and death!)

Over the weekend, Natalya, Tyler, and I attended Extravaganza in New Orleans! Extravaganza is the ELCA’s Youth Ministry Network’s annual conference...

Heartwarming, right? A man finds a woman's purse and delivers it back to the woman's home. She’s not home so he leaves it there. The whole time, in between thanking him profusely, she is trying...

Last year at church, we used the Hebrew word, Hineni, as our word of the year.  It means, “Here I am!”  More than just being present and accounted for, Hineni means...

I got an inversion table for Christmas! I know it may sound like a strange gift, but that’s what I asked for! If you are unfamiliar with inversion tables...

Every year I have this ritual. Following the last Christmas Eve worship service, I drive home alone in the silence of the car, thinking about all the people filling up the sanctuary...

There were at least three of us with the exact same expression on our faces as we peered through the crowd on a Sunday morning...

As I have been working on my thesis that is coming due, I have been exploring the idea of how the Body of Christ, namely, the Church, needs a breath of fresh air...

I’ve been called an impatient person by more people than just Gretchen. And I have to admit, it is true. I hate being slowed down by traffic or long lines at the store...