Ever since a friend first emailed me a link to St. Paul Arts & Media group’s incredibly cute re-telling of the Christmas story a few years ago, it feels like it almost wouldn’t be Christmas without something front the creative folks at St. Paul’s Church in Auckland, New Zealand. Totally unfair, of course, to keep assuming these folks will come up with more creative videos every year, let alone to have them make or break my Christmas. 🙂 And yet so far they have never disappointed. This year’s effort is from St. Paul’s Arts ‘n Kids team (SPANK) and is a take on what media coverage might have been in...

Ken Robinson is one of my favorite speakers. His TED Talk on Education and Creativity is the all-time most watched TED Talks and worth seeing more than once. His book Finding Your Element: How to Discover Your Talents and Passions and Transform Your Life is a wonderful resource. If you don’t have time to read the whole book, you might watch this brief encapsulation and animation of its central idea: that we each have talents to contribute linked to our abilities and passions and the best hope for the world is that we cultivate the diversity of gifts we have rather than only valuing some. As he talks about this idea of cultivating an...

This past weekend I had a chance to reconnect with several former students while teaching in Minot, ND. One reminded me of a distinction I’d made some years earlier and, more importantly, shared with me the impact it was having on some of the young families in his congregation. The distinction was simple (and one no doubt I’d borrowed from others!): Is “faith” a noun or verb? The answer, of course, is both. But the distinction matters when it comes to how we understand our faith in our daily lives; do we, that is, on a day to day basis think of faith primarily as functioning as a noun in our lives or as a verb. If...

We had two rather remarkable worship services at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia over the last few weeks that I wanted to share with you. Two weeks ago, for our community All Saints service, we remembered a different set of saints. Actually, the community prayed for the usual group of saints, those we have known and loved and have lost in the last year. But we also prayed for all those who have been killed by gun violence in the city of Philadelphia over the previous year as well. As part of that remembrance, a memorial to those victims was set up outside of our chapel. Sponsored by the interfaith coalition Neighborhood...

497 years ago today, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the Castle Church in Wittenberg starting what later became known as the Protestant Reformation. Which means that in 3 years, all the world will be observing the 500th anniversary. If you are beginning to prepare your own congregational celebrations, don’t forget to include resources for your youth. And if you’re looking for a place to start, you’d have a hard time finding a better resource than this one produced by the Luther Memorial Foundation in Wittenberg. They are in charge of the Luther and Melanchthon houses in Wittenberg, Luther’s birth and death...

I woke up this morning in Phoenix and look forward to sharing the day with leaders of the Grand Canyon Synod. On may way from the airport last evening I had a rather remarkable experience. Actually, it was on the one hand rather ordinary, even mundane, but maybe that’s why it made it seem all the more extraordinary. I’ll confess that Sky Harbor – Phoenix’s airport – is not my favorite. Don’t get me wrong, it’s beautiful, filled with shops, restaurants, even a museum, and there’s nothing quite like emerging from whatever climate you’ve been in to the warmth of the Phoenix sun. But what I...