This week, I’m on a different kind of study leave. I have literally gone back to school, entering the Doctor of Ministry program at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. A Doctor of Ministry degree program is categorized as a professional degree, rather than an academic degree. It is a form of...
I am so excited. This Sunday, I will be joined on the chancel by Marci Marie Simmons. From her bio: Marci Marie is the Community Outreach Coordinator for Lioness Justice Impacted Women’s Alliance. As a social media influencer and content creator she has over 280k followers on Tiktok and is...
In our intentional village that is Live Oak, the one part of our lives we often don’t get the opportunity to share is that we share with our pet companions. This Sunday, we do exactly that with our Animal Blessing service. It will be in our church backyard, right off...
We’ve got two special worship services coming up and I wanted to bring them to your attention. (And also ask about a specific element you might be interested in.) First, this Sunday is our annual Choir Sunday. This year, the theme is “Harmonies of the East: Exploring Asian Folk Songs.”...
Last Sunday, I told the origin story of Renaissance Festivals in the United States. The first one, the Renaissance Pleasure Faire in California, came partially as a response to the Red Scare that blacklisted many people in the motion picture industry. Phyllis Patterson, a public school teacher, decided that her...
I grew up in the Houston area, close enough to the Texas Renaissance Festival that I had friends who worked there every fall. As a young pre-teen, I went with my big brother and his friends, feeling very cool in doing so. As I got older, there were different things...
Last November, preaching on the topic of “communal resilience,” I told the story of Roseto, Pennsylvania and what is now referred to among sociologists and medical doctors as “the Roseto Effect.” In the late 1880s, the town of Roseto Valfortore, Italy, was going through a period of poverty. Several young...
I don’t usually talk about your physical health, other than to urge everyone to stay hydrated. I focus my ministerial energies on mental, emotional, and spiritual health. But today, I am going to. (Content warning: heartbreak ahead. But this topic is too important.) My dad, in his later years, had...
Did you get to see the eclipse? I gathered with others on the Live Oak labyrinth. We were hopeful, but realistic. The cloud cover looked pretty dense. But our hope was rewarded. The clouds opened up several times while the eclipse was happening, and when it went to totality, they...
As many of you know, my mother has been in the hospital recently. I was with her one day and she needed help repositioning herself to be more comfortable. Her nurse whipped out her communicator and said simply, “I need a boost.” Another nurse came in. They fashioned an extra...
