One of the moments I treasure most is praying with people as they stand before the congregation and publicly take vows as members of Christ Community Church. What a joy to witness people making the move from casual enquirer to committed member, in many cases for the first time in their lives declaring their allegiance to Jesus and his people. This is a deeply moving moment in their lives, and in ours as well. When we become members, we respond to five questions that form our covenant vows, answering each question by saying, “I do” – a very potent little... Read this post

I remember once sitting in a worship service and hearing some verses being read that described the Church as a ‘peculiar people’. Those words were from Peter’s first letter, and I recall thinking as I looked around, ‘Well, whatever else Peter thought, he sure got that right.’  You too might think of the Church as ‘peculiar’, as kind of weird, something like an eccentric aunt with a strange smell, odd manners, dated dress, and slightly deaf and blind to what’s really going on around her. Its also true that you may not think of Jesus’ Church very often, or that... Read this post

The dove descending breaks the air With flame of incandescent terror Of which the tongues declare The one discharge from sin and error. The only hope, or else despair Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre- To be redeemed from fire by fire. – TS Eliot

I admit that I’m at times a reluctant Christian, plagued by doubts and still recovering from bad church encounters. I’m fully aware of all the reasons not to believe. So then, why do I believe? In my own days of skepticism, I wanted a dramatic interruption from above. I wanted proof of an unseen reality, one that could somehow be verified. However in my days of faith, such supernatural irruptions seem far less important, because I find the materialistic explanations of life inadequate to explain reality. I’ve learned to attend to fainter contacts between the seen and unseen worlds. I... Read this post

My worst moment growing up? It happened regularly in fact, almost every summer afternoon: picking teams for a sandlot baseball game. You know what I mean. Forget being the captain making the choices, you just wanted to make sure you weren’t the last one selected for a team. There you stand, glove in hand, looking down at the ground like your dog just died and hoping your name will be the next one called instead of the the last one. In my dreams, I was the number one pick in the NFL Draft, or sank the winning basket for IU... Read this post

Best Seat in the House One of my new joys in life is The Ryman, the beautiful and historic Mother Church of Country Music where I savored the richly textured jazz sounds of Diana Krall this past week. Ryman magic is not news to those of you who’ve called Greater Nashville ‘home’ for many years, but for the newbies its discovery is right up there with a first kiss. While I’ve only been to a few events there so far, I know it’s a place where I’m going to spend a lot of happy hours over the next several years.... Read this post