All is Grace

Sometimes I get tired of being a Christian, let alone a pastor. I struggle with doubt: Is God really there or when I pray am I just talking to myself? I struggle with cynicism: American Christianity is really arguing about ______?  Really!? I struggle with feelings of inadequacy: If only I was as talented/gifted/intelligent/personable/etc. as [...]

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Does Jesus Care Who You Vote For in November?

Now that Mitt Romney has secured, more or less, the Republican nomination for president we can begin to look ahead to the general election.  Obama vs Romney! As with previous elections, we will see prominent evangelical Christian pastors and leaders giving out endorsements.  Personally, I am increasingly skeptical of Christian leaders endorsing candidates.  What’s the [...]

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Spiritual Gluttony – Listening to the Saints (St. John of the Cross)

John of the Cross was a Spanish mystic who lived in the 1500s.  He worked with Teresa of Avila in reforming the communities of monks known as the Carmelites.  One of his best known works, Dark Night of the Soul, is a commentary on a poem, of the same name, that he wrote.  The poem is about the [...]

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Fear, Love and Truth

If you are a Christian and you believe in hell as eternal (it lasts forever), conscious (people there continue to feel and experience it) torment (it is horrible), then I have a question: If you stopped believing in that view of hell, would you continue to be a Christian? This is a question I ponder [...]

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The Mind Matters (or, not everyone leaves Christianity because Christians are jerks)

Why do people leave the Christian faith?  The answer often given is that there is some fault in the Christian community: Christians are judgmental. Christians are old-fashioned.   Christians are not nice. Christians are anti-everything Certainly it is true that many people become disillusioned with faith because of bad experiences with Christians. But not everybody. [...]

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Another Hole in Our Gospel? (Or, does it matter to your “gospel” that Jesus rose from the dead?)

One of my favorite books in recent years is The Hole in Our Gospel by the president of World Vision, Rich Stearns.  The hole in the gospel is the failure to care for the poor and needy. I think we have another hole in our gospel.  I see this in conversations and in comments and [...]

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Listening to the Saints – Teresa of Avila: The Interior Castle (part 2)

This is my second post on Teresa of Avila’s spiritual classic, The Interior Castle.  Read part one. The whole point of this work is to show the soul’s journey to God.  But this is no other-worldly, irrelevant spiritual mumbo-jumbo.  Teresa’s message is actually quite practical. She emphasizes that true perfection, the essence of what it [...]

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Listening to the Saints – Teresa of Avila: The Interior Castle

“Let learned men, who have studied, do the writing; I am a stupid creature and don’t know what I am saying. There are more than enough books written on prayer already. For the love of God, let me get on with my spinning and go to choir and do my religious duties like the other [...]

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On Campus At PSU Berks – Picking Up Trash for Jesus (Again)

CSF tries to find ways to practically serve the campus on a regular basis.  Finding things to do is not as easy as one might think.  I think there are a few reasons for this: 1. Campus runs like a well-oiled machine – it is not like there are huge fields of uncut grass or [...]

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Why I am not Quite a Pacifist

Stories like this one are the reason I am not a pacifist: Was This Teen Mom Wrong to Kill Intruder? A young Oklahoma mother shot and killed an intruder to protect her 3-month-old baby on New Year’s Eve, less than a week after the baby’s father died of cancer. Sarah McKinley says that a week [...]

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