When the disciples asked Jesus to define who was the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus bypassed their question entirely by holding a child and responding, This child. If you welcome them, you welcome me. Soon after a group of children tried to approach Jesus while he was teaching, but the same disciples quickly shushed and dismissed them. Hearing the commotion, Jesus famously commanded, Let them come.  These succinct stories, like most gospel stories, provide enough detail for us to understand the event but not too much to prevent the spark of sacred imagination. Sacred imagination ..read more

One of the strangest things about this pandemic is the way that it has warped my sense of time.  March was both yesterday and at least a decade ago.  I now have all the time in the world, and I have absolutely no time at all, especially with a three-year-old and one-year-old at home.  How is it already time to vote Donald Trump out of office? And THANK GOD it’s finally time to vote Donald Trump out of office. However you slice it, it has been a long time since I’ve written something for this magazine, and I’m happy to be sharing some words with you now. I want to tell you about ..read more

“What children’s curriculum should a progressive church use?”  I see this question asked over and over in online forums by parents, pastors, and church leaders, but sometimes I wonder if we are asking the wrong question. While the question of content, or what to teach, is an important one, I believe that the question of method, or how to teach, is even more important. Many in unfundamentalist circles also wonder, “What is the difference between indoctrination and healthy faith formation?”   In my decade of children’s ministry work, I have observed two predominant approaches to c ..read more

“One’s life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation, and compassion.”  Simone De Beauvoir, The Coming of Age, 1970 A philosopher walks into a bar, and a barfly asks him, “What’s the meaning of life?” That philosopher is me, and it’s an inevitable question once people find out what I do. I’ve had this happen enough times to have a one-liner ready. I’ll first explain that it is not about the meaning of life but the meaning in life, before delivering the punch line. It has two parts, the first of which is the following: mea ..read more

I can hear the hum of the lathe rotating in my husband’s basement woodshop just under my feet where he’s learning to make a French rolling pin and a live-edge bowl out of scrap maple and walnut. He is manipulating the natural occurring grains, turns, knots and twists of the wood to produce his vision. Each step of his process is a deliberate one to contribute to his overall goal.  Within a few hours, he will have turned a block of wood into a tool that we will use to make biscuits, pies, and breads and formed the bowl that will hold our baked delicacies. He produces items whose beauty is ..read more

Our family used to attend a church that puts on a Passion play every Easter that is large in scale and grand in production. The play, “Sonrise” is an outreach ministry for the community, but it also reaches inward to the church members. Both the spectators as well as the actors, and behind-the-scenes volunteers report how deeply moved they are in drawing close to these final days of Christ’s life. The play takes place on the grounds of the university where I used to teach. Many of my students and colleagues participated in “Sonrise.” One afternoon, I was walking on campus and overheard a coupl ..read more

Several weeks ago I asked a small group of elementary school kids to define “hope.” Here are their answers: “Hope is like a voice that whispers to you, ‘You can do this.’” “Hope is when you think everything is bad but then you remember, God is still there.” “Hope is love plus courage.” “I have anxiety but sometimes when I’m really anxious, there’s still a part of me that knows I won’t always feel this way. That’s hope.” Those are wise words from a handful of nine and ten year olds, aren’t they? I had no idea that I would be drawing so deeply from their wisdom in the coming weeks. But as we’ve ..read more

As I start this, I’m sitting on the floor. My 8-month-old daughter is to my right, picking up one toy truck at a time, feeling the wheels with her mouth. My dog, a five-year-old Samoyed named Parker (named after Richard Parker in Life of Pi, in case you’d like to know) is napping by the door. Katie is upstairs with our almost-three-year-old son cleaning a window that became moldy from our humidifier working overtime. It’s raining outside and will likely continue all day.  It’s day 10 of self-quarantine. We’ve already had plenty of moments of almost going stir-crazy. Rainy days are especially d ..read more

In these uncertain times it is more important than ever to protect your mental and spiritual health; not only for yourself, but also for the sake of your partner and children and anyone else sharing your close quarters. Here are some tips to keep it well during this time. They are practices you can do together with your family or on your own, recognizing the symbiosis where the wellness of one family member has an impact on the rest. Connect To Your Breath Our mood is connected to our breath. When we are stressed, we breathe faster, our body’s way of preparing for a ‘fight or flight’ response ..read more

1. Teach your kids about our interconnectedness. This virus has given us an opportunity to talk to our kids about all the ways we humans are connected to each other.  We can first explain how viruses spread, and then the importance of good personal hygiene and how washing our hands not only helps keep us healthy, but just as importantly, how it helps keep other people healthy, too.  (My wife, who is a healthcare professional, gave me a hard time for years about how infrequently I washed my hands. This virus has been a wakeup call for me, and I think it can be a wakeup for many of us, including ..read more