In the Diocese of Central Florida, we recently commended some new leaders to our deanery boards. And as we did this, we handed them two symbols: a cincture (for all the deans, purple because they operate on behalf of the diocese) and a gavel (for the president). Both of these things in some way symbolize…

It’s interesting that as we go through this season of nonstop news about COVID-19, we celebrated the feast day of Gregory the Great on March 12, who was appointed pope in AD 590, after his predecessor, Pelagius II, had died of the plague. Gregory inherited, pestilence, famine and war. And in that context in the…

  In the last post, we saw that the power/control decision is committed to strictly maintaining the status quo in a way that actually penalizes the innovators First of all, if we’re going to make decisions in the midst of these sort of interregnum situations for which there is no easy answer, it requires of…

I’m sharing these thoughts just before the celebration of James the Just, and this leads me to consider what is, in essence, the “Inside Baseball” story, which is about the tension between James, in essence, putting forth an answer to the riddle of what happened in the Jerusalem Council, and the continuing work of the…

© Lifeontheside In Part 1 of this blog, we discussed how the call to ministry, particularly a call to a new position, can leave us feeling as though we’re in a precarious position. It’s as though we were navigating a tightrope and having to keep everything in balance. But this unhealthy perspective is far from…

A call to ministry is, in some ways, a call to a precarious place – especially when it comes to our inner attitude. I want to share a precarious attitude and then one that is more in line with what the scripture teaches about ministry, particularly a call to a new ministry position. Walking a…

Last week, we discussed what I called “the scandal and the sting” of the Christmas story that we sometimes consider so familiar. But the question I want to raise is, what does that element of scandal tell us about Jesus? And what does that tell us about us as we are entrusting ourselves to him?…

I want to start this week’s blog post with a brief video clip. Watch and enjoy!    I wanted to use this clip because it sounds like a lot of Christmas pageants I’ve seen. It gets the essence of the story right, and it makes humorous the stuff that’s actually the most miraculous, like “You’re…

Paul prays a beautiful prayer in Romans 15:13, where he says, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”  You see, in the midst of life, which can often feel like a juxtaposing battle, God…

The story of Mary is intended by God as a sign of hope that our redemption has been accomplished. Do you notice in the Song of Mary, the Magnificat, all the verbs that refer to God’s work are past tense?  My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has…