In this political season we are hearing a lot about flip-flopping, politicizing and pandering.  It does often seem that the candidates say one thing in one setting and spin things differently in front of a different audience. Last week President Obama came out in favor of same-sex marriage....

This Sunday started out with a painful choice. My eldest daughter who is heading off to college in a few months wanted to spend the day with us as a family at our property, my absolute favorite place.  It is rare that she is the one asking to go. My youngest daughter committed to working in...

My family is celebrating Easter, which happens to fall on my husband’s birthday, at a condo on the beach in Top Sail Island, North Carolina.  This is the view from my balcony this morning: Last night my family played the game Apples to Apples and one of the words was the word,...

I recently heard a pastor say that the most important question a church can ask itself is, “What would it look like if God’s kingdom were to become fully manifest in our neighborhood, our city, our nation and our world?” I would add that the second most important question a church can...

In January, at the invitation of Northminster Church, my Embrace Richmond team started a new work in Richmond’s north side (specifically the neighborhoods bordering Brookland Park Boulevard from Moss Side to North Avenue.) The first phase of any new community development effort is...

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...