Many of you know that last week Liz and I were in Orlando for Pastoral Leadership Institute’s “Missional Leader” training. This is a 2 year continuing education program that Liz and I are doing thanks to a generous $2000/year grant from the FLGA District and a $1000/year grant from University Lutheran.   A part of…

Scorsese’s 1990 mobster film, “Goodfellas” revolves around the story of Henry Hill and several other associates as they navigate the waters of mafia drug trafficking. In one of those scenes, Henry talks about what it means to be what they call a “made man”. A made man was someone who was officially brought into the…

We don’t own people, do we? That’s the awkward question that you have to address when you’re reading what we confessed this past week, the 10th commandment: “What is the 10th commandment? You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his maidservant or manservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.…

There are plenty of ways of asking people about their future. One of those ways is asking “Who do you want to be?” The healthy way of answering this is to imagine yourself in a desired future – explaining what you look like, what you have, who is surrounding you, etc. The unhealthy way is…

  I enjoy Yelp. I’m not the best Yelper, but I enjoy the process of reviewing places and acting as a guide for people trying out a place for the first time. Recently I have also become a Google “Local Guide” which is basically the same thing as being a Yelper, but with Google. It…

  As a kid I was taught that my stuff was important. I was taught to take care of my stuff, and if I was going over to a friends’ house, I was taught that I was to take care of their stuff. One time when my parents invited some of their friends over who…

I remember feeling weird the first time that I was at a wedding and thought to myself, “those two people are going to leave here and have sex.” I mean, in a lot of ways, my attendance – and the attendance of their 100’s of guests at their wedding – was to celebrate two people…

It has been a Baptism heavy month here at University Lutheran with the baptisms of Tempest and Taylor, and a few upcoming Baptisms. That is definitely a reason to give thanks to God, because as we confessed together last week: What benefits does Baptism give? Baptism works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the…

The water in there, is it holy water? Occasionally I will get questions  like that about the water that we use for Baptism. I was told a long time ago that the best answer to such questions is often a further question: Why do you want to know? The answer is possibly a nuanced a…

“Well at least I haven’t murdered anyone . . .” It’s probably the most hackneyed self justification out there. “Well, maybe I cheated on my taxes, but [scoff], at least I haven’t murdered anyone.” or “Well, maybe I cheated on my husband, but [scoff], at least I haven’t murdered anyone.” or a thousand other “Well…