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Woman play game on cellphone inside coffee shop

Religious Apps & Games (School Part 2)

(This post is again another school-based project for my class at BU.) My “go to” religious app is linked to a piece of software that I have used for thirty years. The Logos bible software app has been a constant…

Childhood Stories – A School Assignment

(During this fall I am completing my final online course as part of my Doctor of Ministry program at Boston University. The class focuses on how we communicate using the media of the 21st century. As part of the assignments,…

Does United Methodism Need a Map?

I fell in love with maps as a child. As a native Southern Californian, I would read and study the old Thomas Guide map of Los Angeles. Growing up in LA meant learning that there were often many paths to…

Collaboration and brainstroming concept. Portrait of interracial friends gathering together sitting

Being United Methodist

Like many United Methodists, we awake to the day following our Special Called General Conference with a host of differing responses. In taking just a few moments to review the national news and my Twitter feed, it is clear that…

Nativity Scene

Wonderful Words – The Nativity

One tradition I have kept in the local church is that these words are read during our worship: This Christmas night bestowed peace on the whole world; So let no one threaten; This is the night of the Most Gentle…

Foggy forest, so quiet

A Quiet Time

I am a blessed person. Having served local churches for what is now 31 years, my life has been deeply enriched by wonderful, loving, and Christ-Centered people. I could not begin to list all of them. Who God has made…

No I'm not on Facebook.

Farewell Facebook

Here is a copy of what I posted on Facebook today. Keep checking in here for more posts and thoughts in the near future. I’m emerging from my writing hiatus! For a fair number of years I have used Facebook…

Uncertainty Can Be a Guiding Light

These lyrics to an obscure U2 song titled “Zooropa” from 1993 have been a mantra to me as of late. Since late last summer I knew that God was calling me into a season of deep discernment.  I had started seeing…

280 Years of Ticking

Today, being May 24, Methodists pause for a moment to remember John’s Wesley’s experience at Aldersgate Street on this evening 280 years ago.  It was here that John’s Wesley’s “heart was strangely warmed.”  Many describe this as his conversation experience.…

Man standing with forward direction arrow

Moving Along

On Sunday, May 13, I announced that I would be leaving as the Lead Pastor of the First UMC of San Diego.  The news was unexpected for my congregation and even, for myself.  Making the situation even more strange is…