In my 4th-grade year the week before Thanksgiving, my dad and mom announced to all 4 kids that come January dad’s company was transferring him to a new town. Dad said we all would move […]

The first thing I noticed about pastor Jon when we met this week in a Phoenix coffeeshop was his elaborate tattoos. The second thing I noticed is that Jon is theologically savvy, with his undergraduate […]

            As soon as I pulled myself into the right front seat of the Phoenix Rescue Mission’s Hope Coach (a late model Hyundai van), the case manager who shares my first name jumped into the […]

Way back in the day when I was 12, my brother Bob and I sat in church on Sunday morning next to each other and made paper airplanes with our church bulletins. Or kicked each […]

“The words of a gossip are like choice morsels. They go down to the inmost parts.” Proverbs 18:8 —– Having had the privilege of counseling or mentoring hundreds of pastors, I know what a sacred […]

—– It happens every time I drive west in the summer, heading for the Rocky Mountains. Somewhere near the Iowa-Nebraska border, my mind shifts into neutral. It happened again 3 weeks ago. Late in the […]

The Rule of Saint Benedict is a set of directions for monastic life written by Benedict of Nursia in the 6th century in Italy. Nearly every week I am drawn to pray Benedict’s morning prayer. […]