Recently in confirmation, we had our annual “ask a pastor” night. This is an evening that puts our Biblical, spiritual, and pastoral knowledge to the test as the kids ask any burning question on their minds. I sat in a stool at the front of the class…
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One of the highlights of our seventh- and eighth-grade confirmation program is the final session of the school year – “Ask the Pastor.” Youth in the room wing every imaginable question the way of the pastor seated upfront on the stool. As one might e…
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Easter worship at St. Paul is a celebration that engages all the senses. At least two of those senses were stimulated last Sunday by the truckloads of flowers that filled our worship spaces. The church building was bursting with pinks, purples, yell…
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A few weeks ago, as Major League Baseball spring training was well underway, this picture was shared widely on social media: The photo was taken by a reporter in Corpus Christi, Texas, at a Houston Astros minor league baseball game. What you can tell…
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I was stopped at a light on Locust Street here in Davenport last week. On the sidewalk next to me was a mom who had the combination of impatience mixed with amusement that comes with being a parent of a little one. She stood waiting for her preschool…
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I preached a sermon recently where I expressed dismay over our tendency to allow our political opinions to shape our Christian faith. We seem to attach ourselves to a politician or piece of legislation, and then go through all kinds of contortions to…
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Several years ago, I heard about a magical place in Wisconsin, the grotto in Dickeyville. A grotto is a man-made cave, meant to be a picturesque place for reflection. This grotto is located on the grounds of the Holy Ghost parish and was built by Mat…
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Dinnertime at my house has been a bit strange the last few nights. It all started last week when a friend and I pulled out a jigsaw puzzle to work on one evening. We opened up the box, dumped the contents out in front of us, and began sifting through…
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Monday night I was driving back to the Quad Cities from the north. You may remember it was a little stormy that night. After significant delays and the opportunity to make some new friends who huddled with me in the restroom at a BP gas station, I he…
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It was a pretty quiet afternoon in our house. My four-year-old daughter was coloring at the dining room table. I looked in from our kitchen and saw that my toddler son had crawled up on a chair to sit at the table next to his sister. I watched, unnot…
Herbert Spencer was one of Europe’s most famous intellectuals in the closing decades of the nineteenth century. But this philosopher, sociologist, and evolutionary theorist lost plenty of favor in his later years. Critics assailed him for his absence…
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As a church this winter, we read the book “Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson. He is one of the founders of the Equal Justice Initiative, based in Alabama. This group of lawyers, interns, paralegals, and other justice workers advocate for equal treatment…