Last night Christianity Today hosted a celebration at Northminster Church as the culmination of their “This is Our City” project profiling Richmond.   Several quotes stuck with me from last night’s celebration.   The first was from Pastor Brian Gullins, who said “Richmond is...

After publicly outing myself as a pastor in hiding, I have received an outpouring of support as well as concern.  What would it look like for me to take off the Executive Director hat and put on a Pastor hat?  What in my work would change? The truth is absolutely nothing would change in my...

This post is a personal confession.  I have been in hiding.  I know God called me to minister boldly as a part of the church universal but I have been hiding behind my non-profit and under my “Executive Director” title.  I have been hanging out in the margins with people who let me be...

Over the past six months I have traveled to conferences in Chicago, New Orleans, Atlanta, Alexandria and southern California.  I have had visitors from Washington State and southern California come to Richmond and share their stories.  What is obvious to me after talking with dozens of these...

A few months ago in my post “Caroline for Congress.” , I shared that my 13 year old daughter has political aspirations. Last week Caroline jumped on the Kony 2012 band wagon.  She insisted that I watch the video about Joseph Kony which has now gone viral on the internet.  The movement...

When I started the furniture bank I used to get frustrated by people whom I perceived as greedy.  They would try to take more than they needed for a family their size and would often do so in a very ungrateful manner.  Many with this attitude assumed that they were entitled to take as much...

It’s “Hatmaker” week.  When I realized that Jen Hatmaker, author of ” “7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess” is the wife of Brandon Hatmaker, founder of Austin New Church and author of “Barefoot Church”, I downloaded Barefoot Church and found I love his thoughts as...

I am reading Jen Hamaker’s book “7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess” and I deeply resonated with her struggles as a mother.  Here are a few quotes that really spoke to me: “We were surrounded by extreme affluence, which tricks you into thinking you’re in the middle of the...

I just finished Scot McKight’s book titled, “Junia is not Alone.”  In the book he provides us with an illustration of how the voice of women who served in levels of leadership throughout biblical history have been silenced, with Junia being just one such woman.  Reference to the...

You never are together [simply] to be together, you’re together because you have something you want to do, work that [needs to be done]. — Stanley Hauerwas In my prior post, I shared Robert Lupton’s challenge to the church to move away from charity that breeds dependency and toward...

Robert Lupton’s book, “Toxic Charity”, issues us all with a strong challenge – to move away from “an entrenched giveaway mentality” that destroys human dignity and damages communities in the long run. For this mentality to shift we have to “restructure our established one-way...

As I shared earlier this week, I believe one of the primary roles of a minister is helping people cultivate the practice of listening to the sound of the genuine in themselves. However, ministers cannot do so authentically unless we cultivate the practice of listening to the sound of the...