At a recent conference offered by The Fund for Theological Education, we were asked to reflect on the works of Howard Thurman’s, “The Sound of the Genuine.”  Of all the materials and exercises that we did during that three day event, this particular reading impacted me the most. I pray...

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”  Howard Thurman This week I spent three days in New Orleans with the wonderful folks from The Fund for Theological Education (FTE) at their...

Yes, my 13-year-old daughter has political aspirations.  She is a total drama queen, highly photogenic and that red hair is sure to catch the attention of voters.  But she has more than her looks and dramatic personality.  She has a clear platform that will save lives and lead America into...

This past Friday, I had the privilege of sitting under the teachings of John W. Kinney, the Dean of the Samuel Dewitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University. What an amazingly gifted preacher and teacher! Dr. Kinney shared with us that he has been meditating on how to raise...

“Religion is lived by people who are afraid of hell. Spirituality is lived by people who have been through hell.”   Over the years some of the most sensitive and compassionate people I have met have been recovering addicts and some of the most spiritually enlightened people I know,...

Christmas is just not Christmas without being with my extended family.  However, going home is never easy for me.  It always carries with it the ache for those who are no longer with us.  Christmas Eve was my father-in-law’s birthday, I ache for my husband. Christmas Eve was also my...

As I shared in an earlier post, Kathy Escobar‘s book “Down We Go”, really spoke to me.  I was in California this week, visiting different expressions of how the family of God is on mission together on the other side of our nation.  I interviewed three people who are in the...

I know this is going to sound arrogant, but Kathy Escobar wrote her book, “Down We Go: Living into the Wild Ways of Jesus”, just for me.  Even though she does not know me, I do believe throughout the book she was speaking directly to me.  This assumption is confirmed in the dedication...

I am a total 80’s girl.  I think I was the inspiration for the Bowling for Soup song “1985.”  I love U2 and Blondie.  I do remember when there was music still on MTV and when Ozzie was a singer not an actor.  I also remember my desire to live like Madonna’s “Material Girl.” ...

Over on the Jesus Creed blog, Scott McKnight asks the question, “Is 1st Corinthians 15 a sketch of the full gospel or only part of it?”  Here is the heart of the passage under consideration,  1 Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you...

This week my daughter was told that she could not be a Christian and believe in evolution.  It led to a great discussion and thankfully she came to realize there are many ways to practice the Christian faith.  Now, if people trying to make her question her faith would just admit that basic...

I ran across this quote in a preview of Scot McKnight’s new book The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited in a post titled Did Jesus Preach the Gospel? on the Out of Ur blog. “McKnight is concerned that we have confused “Gospel” with “Plan of...