I’d like to think that my sermons help inspire you to greater and greater acts of compassion. Apparently, I’ve been fooling myself. What shapes our readiness to act with compassion is something quite different. A podcast of a German radio program (SWR2 Wissen) provided this summary: A number of seminary students were divided into two … Continue reading Pacing Ourselves, for Compassion
Whether December delights you or depresses you, I can assure you of this: it will not last. Many of us will decorate our homes for Solstice, Hanukkah, and/or Christmas (if we haven’t already), remembering holidays past as we bring out candles, ornaments, maybe those cookie-cutters that only get used once a year. We will sing … Continue reading Winter Holiday Impermanence
“Stress is caused by being ‘here’ but wanting to be ‘there,’ or being in the present and wanting to be in the future.” So simple these words by Eckhart Tolle, yet how true. We never really have a choice, of course. We are always ‘here’ rather than ‘there,’ always taking this one step right now … Continue reading Right Here… Right Now
October’s themes of Belonging and Commitment are a serendipitous pairing. Our Children’s Sunday School theme is Belonging while our worship theme is Commitment, and that raises some deep questions for me and maybe for you. What does it look like to be a congregation committed to the idea that children belong to the congregation? What … Continue reading Belonging and Committment
“We stopped coming and no one ever said a word.” “The only call I ever got from the church was about my pledge.” “I went through a rough time but the church didn’t seem to notice.” In other words: You didn’t care about me as a person. Hearing the disappointment and hurt expressed in … Continue reading Staying in Touch
I am planning to go on strike. And I hope you will join me. Greta Thunberg, the 16 year old climate activist is right. If not me, then who? If not now, then when? September 20th is Climate Strike Day. Millions of people around the globe, led by the youth, will express their readiness to … Continue reading Minister is Going on Strike
Our Second Hour and Sunday School classes have entered “Vacation Mode,” but faith development is so much bigger than what happens on Sunday mornings, and I want to encourage all of us – me included! – not to give our spiritual lives short shrift during the summer. Days are long – where will you make … Continue reading Summertime Faith
What a year of growth and learning this has been! As we prepare to wrap up our first year of Second Hour adult faith development programming and Sunday School classes after morning worship rather than before or during, it’s a time of taking stock. What went well? What were the challenges? What did we learn … Continue reading What’s next for Lifespan Faith Development?
Our mission statement says our congregation exists for three reasons: Connecting in love, growing spiritually, transforming ourselves and the world. As Spring begins to peek out from under the gritty, grimy remnants of snow, our worship theme for April will be Sacred Earth. I have heard from so many of you, and have experienced myself, … Continue reading Growing Spiritually
As we say each Sunday: “Let this be our covenant: … and to help one another.” These words have been at the core of so much of our ministry this winter. I don’t recall another time since my arrival in Concord with so many of us in need of care or involved in providing care. … Continue reading Circles of Care: Comfort in, Dump out
