Leadership and Spirituality

Soul Searching: What Makes a Person and a Country Great?

Leave a Comment / Citizenship, Current Events, Evangelicals and Politics, It All Started in the Garden, Leadership and Spirituality / By /

Part 6 (last) in a series of reflections on the Capitol insurrection and Christians’ participation People must make choices every day about what they will do and how they will act. This is a fact of life ever since Adam and Eve left Eden and became time bound and subject to physical death. We are limited in our capacity and limited in our potential, despite what we may have been taught by affirming parents and teachers. But the truth is, every one has only so much energy and the same amount of time to work with. Perhaps I feel this […]

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Holy Week Trilogy Part I: Headlong into Trouble

7 Comments / Anxiety, Holy Week, Leadership and Spirituality, Lung Cancer, Personal / By /

Luke 19:45:48 Many of my readers are aware that in 2013-14, I faced Stage 3 lung cancer, enduring six months of treatment—radiation, chemotherapy, and surgery—and coming out the other side “cured” (my doctor’s word). Officially NED (“No evidence of disease”) for six years now, and yes, I am celebrating the success of all that effort. Unfortunately, the fact that I gave up a lung lobe and developed asthma makes me “high risk” for serious complications if I were to contract Covid-19. I serve part-time as chaplain at a Level 2 Trauma Center that now has an Incident Command Center to

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Colossians 4:2-6: Stay Awake! Keep Praying!

2 Comments / Colossians, Current Events, Leadership and Spirituality, Lung Cancer, Marriage Definition, Personal, Spiritual Disciplines, The Church in Exile, Uncategorized / By /

2Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. 3And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. 4Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. 5Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt so that you may know how to answer everyone. I have been a morning person my whole life. In the evenings we have a family rule, “No

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Is Creativity Allowed in Presbyterian Worship?

4 Comments / Current Events, Leadership and Spirituality, PCUSA, Personal, Spiritual Disciplines / By /

Every fiber of my Reformed body cringed during my presbytery’s worship time two weeks ago, described in yesterday’s post. Among people who should have known better, what we did together was not worship. It certainly was an experience—I’ll grant you that—but because it dwelled on ourselves and our experience of our bodies and never even acknowledged God’s presence, it was nothing like what you would call Reformed Worship. In the note I finally received yesterday from our executive presbyter, Jeff Hutcheson acknowledged that the service was “outside the box,” but shared his own spiritual experience through it as significant and

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The Misdirection of Worship: A Case in Point

8 Comments / 2012th General Assembly (Pittsburgh), 221st General Assembly (2014), Leadership and Spirituality, PCUSA, Peace Unity & Purity, Personal / By /

Lest one thinks that idolatrous worship was a problem only eons ago, as illustrated in yesterday’s post, even today within the PC(USA) it is possible to find events promoted as worship experiences that are anything but. A case in point: the after-dinner “worship” on the agenda of San Francisco Presbytery’s regular meeting of September 9. The “Order of Worship” handed out to us as we entered the sanctuary of First Presbyterian Church of Oakland consisted of the following elements: a call to worship, opening song, Scripture exploration, Communion & Community Prayer, Announcements, Closing Song, and Benediction. The experience unfolded in

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Breathing Lessons and the Big Contest

2 Comments / Death & Dying, Leadership and Spirituality, Lung Cancer, Personal, Spiritual Disciplines / By /

I celebrated a milestone of sorts today, the last session of a pulmonary rehabilitation class I have been taking to learn how to breathe and manage my air. A group of twelve has met for a total of 36 hours over these last seven weeks, instructed by respiratory therapists, physical therapists, nutritionists, pharmacists, psychotherapists, and doctors. We have been supervised in the gym for a minimum of 1½ hours of tailor-made exercises each class day, and we marked our progress. We are now considered “educated patients” who have learned how to observe our health status and to know when to

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Ministry without Power

2 Comments / Leadership and Spirituality, PCUSA, Personal, Spiritual Disciplines, The Pastoral Call / By /

As the church family awaits the celebration of Pentecost on Sunday, I have been reflecting on what it would have been like if the Spirit had not come as promised. From the testimony of the gospels and the book of Acts, we know that the disciples—waiting as instructed for “power from on high”—basically did nothing risky or bold in the interim. Unless you consider the nomination and election of a new elder to fall into that category . . . (see Acts 1:12:26). I have two personal experiences to share that gave me an inkling of what it is like

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Happy Birthday to Me!

4 Comments / It All Started in the Garden, Leadership and Spirituality, Lung Cancer, Personal, Uncategorized / By /

Today is my birthday, and given the bout with the Beast this past year, one worth celebrating with gusto! We are having a few friends over to share dinner and birthday cake, and if family tradition prevails, I am entitled to special treatment all day. Actually, maybe all week—we try to stretch our luck as far as we can. Last year at this time, our kids were putting on for us a joint celebration of our milestone 60th birthday. Relatives and friends came from all over and made us feel very loved, putting us at the center of attention. Those

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My SHAPE: E—Experience in Ministry

1 Comment / Leadership and Spirituality, Lung Cancer, PCUSA, Personal, SHAPE for Ministry, Teaching, The Pastoral Call / By /

It’s an interesting thing about experience and ministry. Experience is not required to do something or to be someone useful to the Kingdom of God. There are many entry-level positions in God’s economy. But if one has had experience in ministry settings, one has some clues as to one’s gifts and calling. I remember my very first mission trip, a month-long excursion to Guatemala after its 1976 catastrophic earthquake. Based on that experience—riding a school bus from the Bay Area the entire length of Mexico into Guatemala, mixing cement and setting reinforced concrete brick, cleaning bathrooms, and speaking with the

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My SHAPE: P—Personality

2 Comments / Leadership and Spirituality, Personal, SHAPE for Ministry, The Pastoral Call / By /

When our second daughter was born, I was blown away by how different she was from her older sister, on the first day! I guess I had held the view that “a baby is a baby,” until Darling Daughter A exhibited her own response to the world in contrast to Darling Daughter 1. It’s a good thing I could see the difference between them, because I was enabled to receive each girl on her own terms and enjoy her uniqueness. Such an appreciation releases a mom from the temptation to treat her children exactly alike, which I think was a

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