GETTING AROUND TO THE HARD STUFF

I don’t know what the vegetable was at your house growing up that your mother told you to eat before you could leave the dinner table. For our son, I remember the stickler being green English peas. We created a system in which he had to eat at least as many as his accumulated years on earth. So in fourth grade (age 9), he had to eat nine peas before being dismissed from the dinner table. I recall one night where he sat and pushed those nine little peas round and round for an hour after dinner was done. The dishwasher was running and he was still staring at the peas. In retrospect we probably should have negotiated a substitute veggie if they offended him that much.

LET'S TALK ABOUT MANCHESTER

Manchester, England lays claim to being the birthplace of the industrial revolution.  It is also the birthplace of fully-inclusive democracy, workers’ unionization, and with those movements, the emergence of middle-class prosperity globally. Manchester was an early hotbed for activism for the abolition of slavery, women’s rights, and more recently, the rights of migrants and the battle against global warming.

WHISKEY AND A PIG

Coaching conversations across many miles and time zones often happen in my life before and after the local 9-5 work window.  Many days I am ready to go at 6 am Pacific Time, especially if a client is in Glasgow, where it is already 2!  I had a 4:30 am session one day this week as I shifted my body clock to work across the Atlantic for a bit. Then, once I am in London, there’s this Pennsylvania church that needs to meet one evening after work. Start time: 11:30 pm British Time.

THE VIEW FROM THE PULPIT

Kids are back in school this week in a lot of American communities.  Do you recall the little essay at the beginning of the school year, when we were nine years old: What did you do this summer?  You remember that one?  Just a little kick start to get us writing again.

So for my Fourth Grade Teacher, Barbara Matulich, wherever she is in this world or the next: here goes (my 2025 summer essay):

YES, SOME CHURCHES ARE STILL GROWING, EVEN IN 2025!

In my 63 years on the planet, I have belonged to and/or served as pastor to 20 congregations.  Sometimes, early in ministry, I had two churches at a time.  I was part of one church for 9 years, but I count it as two because the church planted a new campus in 1999 where I served as pastor.

ON DOING NO HARM

Among the endless lies coming from the White House is this persistent trope about undocumented people as criminals. Fact is that immigrants have a lower propensity to commit crime than homeborn people. And it is logical - they do not want to draw attention to themselves and get deported.

I STILL HAVE FAITH IN YOU

 

This is the title of the opening track of the album Abba Voyage.  Abba Voyage is a collection of ten songs from a 70s band, that reunited a few years back and produced a fresh album: their first in over forty years!  Because these are new songs, none of them turn up in any Greatest Hits collections. None of them are featured in the popular musical Mama Mia.  The music feels more seasoned than their earlier body of work.