We live in a day in which email correspondence is taken so seriously that it can spell disaster for politicians, a day in which so much of our communication is available on the internet that the information that we CAN attempt to control, we do attempt to control. Communications scholars have been interested in this…

I just came back from the Regional Pastors’ Conference in Lake City FL where I was for Tuesday and Wednesday. We had two major speakers, one was the legal counsel for the Florida Georgia District, and the other was a guy from Grace Place Ministries. Grace Place is a healing and preventative ministry for people…

Last night at the Concordia Seminary (St. Louis) Call Day, Seminarian Kyle Will, one of our alumni, received his vicarage placement to the Lutheran Church of Vestavia Hills in Alabama, just outside of Birmingham. Pastor Jay was a vicar in Gainesville FL, where he met Liz and first tried his hand at campus ministry work.…

This Sunday at University Lutheran we are starting a new series about the Seven Marks of the Church according to Martin Luther. These Seven Marks were a big deal for Luther and the first Lutheran performers. They had been kicked out of the Roman Catholic church, and now they had to answer a very important…

While I was packing for a trip this past weekend, Liz noticed something interesting on the bag that I was packing my stuff into. The bag I was packing my stuff into was from “Be The Match”, the National Marrow Donor Program. Because I donated my stem cells through a process called apheresis, they gave…

The second article of the Creed teaches us something important about God and math, namely that God uses math when He feels like it – but there are other times, especially in relation to His being, He eschews math for something greater, Himself. This means that He is 3 and also 1 and also 3…

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…