Blog

When the Time Comes to Let it Go
I found value in the kept-things. I also found value in the empty space left behind by the things I let go of.

The Slow Cultivation of the Snow Pea
As I pick my snap peas, I also hear a pastoral note in Jeremiah 29. Yes, exile will be long. Babylon is not Jerusalem. All

Jesus, Plead for Me
My small-sample survey suggests nightmares fall into three types: fear of external threats; fear of internal inadequacies—mortal or moral weakness; and fear of abandonment.

A Marriage Goal Revisited: Plan B comes through, sort of
We were asked to make a list of goals for our marriage. I only remember two, and we failed at both.

How to Honor Frederick Buechner at 100
When asked by an interviewer how he wished to be remembered, Buechner said, “I would choose the fiction.” Yet few readers engage Buechner’s fiction today.

The Patience of the Kingdom
Too often in church history and in churches today we have rushed to premature judgment assuming we know who is clearly evil and who is

Rebel Against the Hustle
A long commute and late nights at my first job meant I was tired every evening and longed for every weekend.

Blockbuster Video, 2026?
Becoming a pastor — to say nothing of starting a new church ! — can feel like signing up to open a Blockbuster Video location

Wren Pellets
High summer and the plant life here in the muggy Midwest is pumping with all abandon, turning sunlight, soil minerals, and atmosphere into plant tissues,

Renewed day by day
I am nothing if not a pragmatist—I always care about proceeding grounded in principle, of course, but I mostly want to know how (and by

Who the CRC Left Behind (including me)
I too was left behind, a child of the CRC who once hoped to serve the CRC. I have grieved. I have questioned and been

Praying with Our Legs
We gather outside the church. We’re there to protest. I was protesting outside the church because protest is deep in our Christian bones.