The Coolest Thing Since the Printing Press

I’m surprised that this didn’t make more of a splash when it came out a month or so ago. The Codex Sinaiticus project is updating and making available online the images and translations of a codex—a 1600-year-old bible, one of the oldest and most complete versions of the Christian Bible ever found.
Why do I think [...]

Link Love!

This totally made my day. Maybe my week. Not my month, but there’s some cool stuff happening this month.
Way, way down on his list of podcast he likes, Matt writes:
We Your People, Ours the Journey
These are the sermons of Rebecca Clark, aka @pastorbecca, a Methodist pastor in the US. I really enjoy her sincere, sensible [...]

I’m not the only one who thinks substitution is bunk!

You really should check out this post by Angela on the Radical Love Project. It’s a super-good read on Jesus, attonement, and what is and is not important. Here’s a little teaser:
Jesus didn’t come here to die as payment for anything. I could go on all day about how that makes no sense at all, [...]

To Press

While I’m (laptopless) in Florida, I leave you with a couple of things I’ve recently published.
Ministry in the age of online networking (article for my Annual Conference’s website)
“The Birthing of a Mother-God” (essay for “Mama Says” a local publication for mothers, in their edition on mathoerhood and spirituality, re-work of an earlier blog post or [...]

Feedback wanted

Hi folks, when you have a few free minutes (this week? ha!), could you do me a favor and check out my ‘Virtual Worship‘ link on Trinity UMC’s website?
For the second week in a row, we had little or no heat in the sanctuary, and this week there was a severe weather warning, so we [...]

Webspace

One of my two churches is finally ready to unveil our new website! Take a gander at Trinity UMC online and tell me what you think.
On an unrelated note, I had to buy my ever-growing baby new underwear– from the girl’s section, not the toddler’s. *sniff* It goes so fast! Hug a kid you love [...]

Nope. I really can’t tell.

Please note: there is no way on God’s green earth that linking to this site is in any way an endorsement.
One of my friends told me about this site, and I spent a lot of time clicking through it.
It’s called “You’ve Been Left Behind,” youvebeenleftbehind.com, and here’s the thing: I can’t tell if it’s legitimate [...]

Virtually Sacred Time

I continue to ponder the nature of church, community, and technology, wondering how the tools around us can be used to build up the Body of Christ. This is largely speculative; I’m not looking for quick answers here, but for reflection.
During last week’s four-hour-lunch, one of the topics of conversation between Human Hankie (and beverage [...]

Technology= fail

Since I switched over here to WordPress, I have grown very attached to the weekly sermon podcast, and am usually very excited to upload each week’s sermon, whether it was stellar or not so much.
So I’m bumming, because I can’t get this week’s sermon to load.
It was a pretty good sermon, but we were short-staffed [...]

I did not have pastoral relations with that woman!

I know, I sound a little… Clintonian here, but I have a question about the meaning of pastoral contact. You see, according to our guidelines for appointment, clergy covenant, and countless other documents,
After the change of appointment, the outgoing pastor will not have pastoral contact with any member of the congregation without the invitation of [...]