Vital Posts / Discernment

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  • A New Way to Start a Meeting ✓
    Apparently I’m in meetings often enough that when I told my son I had meetings the other day, he grunted. “Meetings. Is that all adults do? Do you ever work in these meetings?” My honest answer: Sometimes. Meetings consume a l…
  • Wanna Grow! Help People Discern
    Editor’s Note: Guest blogger Chris Yaw’s passion is healthy churches. His ChurchNext ministry puts the spotlight on a diversity of ministries that are flourishing. He records and shares interviews with faith leaders so others can learn from the…
  • Desperate for Discernment
    I bought an Apple computer because I’d spent too much time in Best Buy overwhelmed by the array of PC’s – Toshiba or IBM or Sony? So many screen sizes, processors, features, and colors. Once I decided to buy an Apple, I had the choice of thre…
  • Wake-up Call
  • Beyond Three T’s
    Over the holidays I read the book Reclaiming the Great Commission by Bishop Claude Payne and Hamilton Beasley. The book describes a transformational model that Bishop Payne, clergy, and lay leaders developed and introduced during his episcopacy wit…
  • The Christmas Challenge
    On Christmas you and I will hear a story alleging the Creator and Ruler of the Universe decided to come to earth to become human – a lofty, controversial, and near-preposterous claim, for sure. Nonetheless, we will notice that God does not do…
  • Advent: Anticipation and Disappointment?
    What do you do when you no longer like your favorite Christmas cookie? Peppermint candy cane cookies: I’ve made them for almost 30 years and can’t imagine a Christmas without them. Two and a half sticks of butter, a cup of confectionary suga…
  • What's Your Dirt Pile?
    Like most kids, my son’s best friend has carefully crafted his Christmas list for Santa. A few Wii games made the cut, along with some Star Wars paraphernalia and Beyblades (don’t ask me – it’s some funky disc game that’s the current rage…
  • Midnight Breakfast
    It’s getting closer! In this time of preparation, it’s hard not to think about what’s coming: final exams. In the next week or two college students will hunker down into reams of paper, laptops, and group projects, trying to finish semeste…
  • St. Nicholas: Putting away (my) childish things
    St. Nicholas greeted us at the door. This evening is one of my favorites leading up to Christmas. The children giggle, laugh, and point. Some hide behind their mothers’ legs, peeking one eye out at the jolly ole soul. We combine the delight…
  • Were You Transformed?
    The end of a year always puts me in a reflective mood. Like a DJ at some local radio station, I take full advantage of these days to look back and compile lists of the past year’s greatest hits and less successful ventures. It’s also when I ask m…
  • Beyond Functions: An Incarnational Ministry Fair
    With Kick-off Sunday under our belts, many churches turn to the Ministry Fair to jumpstart recruitment for all the numerous parish ministries needing warm bodies to keep their mission going. Many times these look like this: a parish hall set up wit…
  • How Do You Engage the Bible?
    Congregations across the Anglican Communion are invited to take part in a communion-wide survey which asks how Episcopalians and Anglicans understand and engage with the Bible. In the Diocese of Connecticut’s September 24, 2011 weekly eNews, edi…
  • Generosity (of Spirit)
    “Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous? So the last will be first and the first will be last.” (Matthew 20:14-16) This is the end of the parable about the vineyard owner and th…
  • Vestry as Spiritual Leaders?
    How would your vestry's work differ from current practice if the spiritual health of the congregation was its primary obligation? One of the best kept secrets in the Episcopal Church has to do with the wide range of work that vestries can ta…
  • Finding Mr./Mrs. (the Rev.) Right
    Discernment is like dating.  Those early butterflies. Conversation that burrows a little deeper with each chat, by turns both exuberant and awkward. The not knowing how much to reveal: I like you. I want to serve here. I want to move forward to…
  • A Discerning Heart
    Discernment: it’s not about ordination to the priesthood. Outside the church I’m not sure people consciously talk much about “discernment.” But in our Episcopal Church, “discernment” often becomes shorthand for the process someone goes …
  • Taking One for the Team
    It came out of left field. We were in hour two of a three-hour softball game for 9-10 year old girls. After a spring of flash flooding and rain-outs, the weather turned to summer overnight, and our shirts were sticky with sweat. My daughter w…
  • Brother, Give Me A Word
    When Americans hear or see the word ‘stop’ we know what to do. If we are in our cars, we cease driving for a moment; if we are walking and about to cross the street, we hesitate. We have learned to pay attention and to make a response when we c…
  • When the Outside Doesn’t Match the Inside
    A 22-year-old woman visited our church for the first time last Sunday. We talked for a bit, and then I shared that in addition to my husband and me, the congregation has several other young couples.  Later, I realized: she must have thought I w…
  • Osama bin Laden: To rejoice or not?
    I don’t rejoice that Osama bin Laden is dead. To be certain, I am glad he can no longer mastermind terrorist attacks. I am thankful he will no longer be able to lead disenfranchised zealots to attack innocent people around the world. His …
  • Earth Easter
    On this Good Friday, I want to share a message from my friend Durrell Watkins, senior pastor at Sunshine Cathedral MCC, Fort Lauderdale.  "It's interesting that Earth Day falls on Good Friday this year.  With our greed (Judas/30 pi…
  • For Lent: Downward Mobility
    The first Sunday in Lent has the same gospel story every year. Told in versions by Matthew, Mark and Luke, the forty-day temptation of Christ in the wilderness begins our own forty days of wandering. Each year on this Sunday, I remember my teacher …
  • Responding to the Call, Part 2
    Back in November, I wrote about forming the fourth mutual discernment group in my four years as rector as another member of our church seeks clarity on a call to priesthood. In the intervening months our bishop and Commission on Ministry have draft…
  • Bringing our Bodies to Church
    On a December night in 1996, a drunk driver swerved into my mother’s lane and crashed into us head on. I was 14, in the passenger’s seat, and immediately felt a white hot bolt of pain shoot through my lower back. Thanks to God and my mother’s…
  • Blue Notes
    Pull out a stack of post-it notes. With a blue pen, jot down the reality of the Episcopal Church as you see it now. Use one post-it note per idea. With a red pen, write down some of your hopes and vision for the Episcopal Church in the future. Use …
  • Weathering Change
    What happens when your spouse changes? There are times when suddenly a new interest or commitment starts to unfold. Or a voice that’s been lingering deep within suddenly finds it’s way to the surface. Have you had one of those moments when you …
  • The Postmodern Turn
    It is everywhere. The term Postmodernism is in the water these days. It is has been appropriated by a new generation of evangelical theologians who have embraced it as strongly as progressive theologians latched on to Liberation Theology 30-40 yea…
  • A Game of Pick-Up-Sticks
    On a dusty shelf I spied one of my favorite childhood games: Pick-up-sticks.  I presented the game to the kids during dinner and explained the premise: Drop the clutch of sticks onto the ground and then pick up one at a time, taking care not to…
  • Renewing Our Baptismal Covenant
    In the aftermath of the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords at a campaign event in Arizona, two Facebook postings caught my attention. The first, John Donne’s familiar poem, a favorite since college: "No man is an island, entire of itself; …
  • Spreading Jesus’ Light
    I miss the tree burning. For many years my community celebrated 12th night by burning Christmas trees at the beach. As darkness approached people would add their trees to the pile collected by town workers. A member of the local clergy offere…
  • Crafting Resolutions
    Since I’m going to be in Texas for the foreseeable future (or at least until flights to New York begin again), I find myself with an abundance of time on my hands. Which is fine by me. My family’s home in the Texan hill country is an amazing pl…
  • On the Third Day of Christmas….
    …my true love gave to me three French hens… My third day of Christmas is day 2 of ‘the blizzard of 2010.’ Snow continues to fall; blanketing the house and yard with heavy, wet snow. The familiar landscape of my yard is covered with drift…
  • Glorious In-Between Times
    Ah, we’ve reached the in-between times.  Wads of wrapping paper and torn boxes sit on the curb. There’s still plenty of cookies and fudge, but the baking is done. And for the family of a priest, the noon bells yesterday meant the end of the …
  • Crisis of Church
    I am having a crisis of Church. No, not a crisis of faith. My faith is strong and for that I am thankful. However, I am taking some time off from church. Not my parish, not the Episcopal Church, but THE Church. You see, I believe The Church is i…
  • My December To Do List
    I tried to switch my calendar, address book and To Do Lists to my iPhone to help organize my life but it just didn’t work. I have switched back to my trustee Daytimer with two pages per day for appointments and lists. It is the same system I have…
  • God’s Light Precedes our Light
    One sunny summer day as a young boy I experienced a miracle. I was holding a small magnifying lens, examining a flower petal. Suddenly the flower leapt on fire. I was shocked! In a profoundly simple way, I witnessed the power of captured light: eno…
  • The Art of Living Simply: Making More of Less
    “Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” – Jesus “Simplify, simplify, simplify.” – Henry David Thoreau, Walden. Rules for a simpler lifestyle cannot be universal rule…
  • Advent Haiku
    First candle is lit Boughs on brass stand shimmering In the deep darkness That is the haiku I wrote in 10 minutes during the first class of our Advent series Advent Haiku- The Spirit in the Heart of the Moment. It is being taught by Ma…
  • Tis the season of: Overload?
    I’m a creature of habit. Regardless of when Advent begins, to me, December 1 is the ‘official’ start date of the season. Time seems to be in ample supply; balancing family, work, chores, and preparation for Christmas seems oh so do-able. …
  • Covenants
    This past Sunday I trooped up to St. Mary’s Manhattanville in Harlem, New York to facilitate a conversation about the Anglican Covenant. But before this discussion ever took place, I found myself regretting that I’d ever agreed to do this.
  • Responding to THE Call
    I had someone come into my office and share that they wanted to become a priest. This will be the fourth time that as rector I have responded to such a conversation by pulling together a formal discernment group. They will meet over nine months …
  • Busybodies or Workers?
    I’ve been thinking a lot about “work” lately. The value of work, types of work, and how people work. St. Paul got me thinking even more last weekend with his letter to the Thessalonians. Bluntly put: if you won’t work, you shouldn’t eat. …
  • Holy Diversions
    I live alongside a monastic community. (Yes, there are nuns and monks in the Episcopal Church!) What a unique and amazing experience. I could never have planned for something like this…it just emerged in grace-filled ways over the last 18 months.…
  • Hollow me out
    When he didn’t win the pumpkin contest, I felt the tears sting. For most of Saturday, we worked on Cinderella’s coach, pulling the slime out of the pumpkin, carving windows, fashioning a door (that really opened!) and decorating the coach as…