“Recovery is one day realizing that your ability to talk about the loss you’ve experienced is indeed normal and healthy.” (The Grief Recovery Handbook, James & Freidman, pg.7) A few weeks ago I was talking with my therapist about grief and all its forms. In that conversation, I remembered times where I was able to…
Category: community
Calling All Clergy: Let Someone Else Hold Space for You.
This morning I found myself in a position I almost rarely do. I was hurt by something small, like really small in the grand scheme of things. And it involved a person I’ve come to trust and regard as a close friend in the last year or so. For what feels like the first time…
Asking the Question.
Two weeks ago, I was finally ordained into the church of my family, the PC(USA). I was surrounded by my family and friends, and stood at the table with 5 fabulous, badass women. Rev. Julie Emery and Rev. Sean Miller gave fabulous charges to myself and the church, Rev. Dr. Jan Edmiston preached a sermon…
bathing suits vs. thongs
I have more than enough on my plate today. I’ve got a trip to Cuba to finish prepping for. A Small Group Leaders Manual to go over and make notes. A retreat for fabulous queers of faith to work on & fundraising to finish getting ready. A sermon to finish. A devotional to clean up…
No more complacent elephants.
During my time down in Cuba, which was only a short 8 days, my elephant (rather, my heart) got a good swift kick for being lazy. A kick that, looking back, was well deserved. I had allowed my complacency to become comfortable, and that is a dangerous thing. Bring in relationship with others is a…
Redirecting elephants in Cuba.
Two Mondays ago, I arrived in Havana, Cuba, for the first of my two scheduled visits of 2017. Had you asked me a year ago if I would ever go to Cuba, I don’t know that I could have said yes. Not because I didn’t want to, but it was never on my radar. Until…
No. 1 Who are you?
I recently joined a youth ministry co-hort through the Youth Cartel. One of my homework assignments is to take Seth Godin’s Freelancer course from Udemy.com. For this series of videos, he has these sort of “worksheets” to do. This is my attempt to do them and have some honest transparency about them. And to keep…
Look outward.
This morning, as I checked Facebook while drinking my coffee, I read status after status by my friends who are all taking Lent as a time to disconnect from Facebook. There’s a need to take a break from the political posts and the mindless status updates about what someone is doing (I am totally guilty…
letter: (noun) a direct or personal written or printed message addressed to a person or organization; origin: middle english, 13th century
The following letter was written about a year ago while I was surfing around on church websites trying to glean how to write some blurbs for a project I was working on. Dear Church People, I love you. I love you all, so much. I am one of you. Even though we are all different,…
I want to be part of an authentic church.
Today, on my day off, in between car washes, trips to the store, the mechanic, and multiple loads of laundry, I read two things: First, I read a piece from the Washington Post by Rachel held Evans that one of my youth leaders sent me this morning from April of 2015 called, Want millennials back…
Life comes from death.
This week, I’ve had the privilege of spending the week with the Montreat College Conference with over 1,500 college students and some of my dearest friends in life and in ministry as I serve as the conference pastor, a workshop leader, and the conference artist. It’s been a blast. Even as I battle a lingering…
Please, don’t let humanity suck.
Last time I wrote, I was personally feeling the sting from our US Presidential election results. I felt the sting from the people I loved who seemed to think that those of us hurting were overreacting and that we should get over it. I felt the sting of knowing that I should have done more…
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