As I sit in a North Scottsdale Starbucks, I am reminded of how Starbucks is meant to exude a feeling of connectedness. The old comfy chairs, the soothing music, the aroma of coffee, customers reading books or doing work, the friendly barista who always remembers your name and drink order. Its the familiarity of your own living room in a place where you are to feel that you belong and are known. Randomly, it reminds me of the lyrics to the theme song for the 1980s sitcom Cheers, “Where Everyone Knows Your Name”: "Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got. Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot. Wouldn't you like to get away? Sometimes you want to...

Here are three excerpts from an article about "new media" that I was recently asked to write for Reflections: A Magazine of Theological and Ethical Inquiry. The question was how we can think about our faith in our "wired" culture. You may find the rest on the Reflections website. From "Connecting With a Theology of Technology": ... A conversation at the ideas festival about education turned to how educators might keep the attention of students in the face of so many distractions in their hyper-mediated world. We spoke of the new normal in the upper middle class: an iPhone in one’s pocket, an iPad in one’s purse, and a laptop in one’s bag, all 
syncing every 15 minutes with Facebook, Twitter, and whatever one calls...

You are going to Nashville next week! What you haven’t heard? Well, it's true. On Sunday morning, 12 of our PPC church members are headed out early to Nashville, Tenn., to assist with flood relief. They were commissioned this past Sunday morning at the 8 a.m. worship service. When we commission mission or work trips, we are charging them with acting on behalf of the whole congregation. Their ministry and assistance in Nashville will be an extension of who we are as a congregation. In addition during that commissioning service, the congregation (represented by those present at the service) promised to go with them in spirit, to keep them in our prayers as they prepare and as they work in a new context, to support them financially and emotionally for their work, and to rejoice with them upon their return. Trips such as the one next week are called...

As we gear up for our annual Stewardship Campaign, much of the focus revolves around resources — whether financial, talents, or time. Certainly, the financial resources are essential for the church to function, providing sound facilities and excellent programs, reaching out to others through mission efforts, and growing in God’s word. However, in the area of Children’s Ministries, the time and talents that workers share with our children is priceless. It is the work of the teens and adults who interact with our children that can truly provide a life-shaping experience for our children, from birth through elementary school. I’ve just returned from a four-day conference in Chicago titled KidMin. (What a great moniker for Children’s Ministries!) I was able to interact with hundreds of people just like me — people passionate about children and God, serving in their churches, reaching out to children and their families, helping to build a foundation of faith for the littlest ones in their churches. What a revitalizing week! There were several different tracks...

While living in Scottsdale, Ariz., I have found that people are fond of reminding one another of a unique cultural phenomenon: Everyone is from somewhere else. True Arizona natives are hard to come by. Many people who live in the area are new family or retiree transplants seeking sunshine and opportunity or snowbirds who migrate back and forth between here and the Midwest, landing in Arizona from October to May. I have heard it said that more than a million people make their way into Scottsdale during these months. The city is also a relatively new place as far as cities go. There were only 2,000 people living here in the 1950s. Of course, 1951 saw the affordability...

(A much expanded version of this was published as "Christian Anarchy and Reconciliation: A View from the Pulpit" in Reflections, Fall 2007. Thought I'd share some of it here.) “We believe that everyone — political figure or commentator, citizen or alien, man or woman, black or white, conservative or radical — who at this particular time says that this people and this nation are in deep, perhaps irremediable political trouble, speaks the truth.” — Will D. Campbell and James Y. Holloway. Some words come back with haunting relevance. Back in the 1960s, these two southern churchmen, Will Campbell and James Y. Holloway, co-edited the journal of the Committee of Southern Churchmen, called Katallagete: Be Reconciled. A collection of their essays from that journal was published in 1970 under the title, Up To Our Steeples in Politics (Paulist Press). The words above led the essay from which the title of the book was drawn. Wipf and Stock Publishers re-released this book. It’s eerily timely, but not for reasons a quick reading of this lead might have you believe. For these writers go on to unsettle an...

Who are we Presbyterians? What makes us unique? How are we different from other “main line” denominations? As a pastor, I have fielded these question many times. Congregations belonging to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) are united by a desire to worship God and to identify and do the good work God is calling us to do. Recognizing that for many people this is easier said than done the Book of Order of the PC(USA) has organized this work into practical, concrete objectives called the “Six Great Ends of the Church.” These are: “The proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind” The things we say and the way we live should be evidence of the good news God reveals to us in scripture. “The shelter, nurture and spiritual fellowship of the children of God” We are “our brother’s keeper.” God calls us to remember our...

The text in the second section of the United States Declaration of Independence reads, “(We believe)… that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” It is one of the most famous phrases in the Declaration and considered by some as part of one of the most well-crafted, influential, and well-known sentences in the history of the English language. In his book, Inventing America: Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence, Gary Wills argues that for Thomas Jefferson this phrase, “pursuit of happiness,” did not refer to some vague and private notion of contentment but to a more public happiness that is measurable. The pursuit of happiness defined by Jefferson is life that arises from certain character traits — courage and heart devoted to the good...

I was at a gathering last week at which there were a variety of folk from various backgrounds, professions, ages, and interests. It wasn't a religious event. The last panel of speakers was called "Last Remarks," for which several of us were asked to give two minute "final thoughts" for life to this mixed and attentive group. This week, I share with you my remarks. "Last Remarks" There is more. There is more than the power and real pride of accomplishment. There is more. There is more than the overwhelming grief that can texture loss. There is more. There is more than anger at injustice, or yearning for healing. There is more than vast multi-layered cosmos that is itself more than what we can imagine. There is more than the smallest proton or the simplest gesture of...

Dear friends, As we enter a new program year, there are both familiar and new faces leading us at Pinnacle. The congregation has received correspondence about our staffing over the summer, but I thought to take my column this month and update you all on who’s doing what these days — at least in the pastoral and program areas of our ministry. So, let’s go in some sort of order! Me: I’m looking forward to a new year of preaching, care, teaching, learning, and leading. I look forward to working with the Session on plans regarding finances, education (see exciting news in September’s Pinnacle Vistas), and improving our communications. I look forward to more time to get to know you all! I also look forward to leading an effort to advance our educational offerings in all areas, and more. Rev. Kristin Willett: Kristin looks forward to concentrating more energy on our growing youth program. Alongside this, she’ll provide pastoral oversight and guidance to all of our...

I read an article on NPR online this week in which former Secretary of State Colin Powell said, “Americans will only lose touch with the freedom-loving, open society we enjoy if we take such counsel of our fears that we change who we are." Powell argues that 10 years after the events of Sept. 11, 2001 the thing that we must guard against most is fear. Sept.11, 2001, was my first day of college — a day full of hopes and new beginnings. What started as an ordinary morning of freshman English, quickly dissolved into a day of shock, horror, and sadness. My classmates and I stood paralyzed in front of TV screens. So many people. We live in a world of constant calamity and sadness but on that day we were confronted with a new idea, most of us have never...

In my 2005 book, Where the Light Shines Through (Brazos Press), I begin the chapter, "9/12 Living in a 9/11 World," with this memory: In late September of 2001, not long after Sept. 11, the Washington Post ran an article by Hanna Rosen called, “God, You Around?” It was about the noticeable resurgence of both outward religious practice and private prayer in the wake of that September’s events. “It’s not just that the faithful are flocking to houses of worship,” she wrote, “it’s that people who have never been and still won’t go, who passed all those candlelight vigils . . . and kept on walking, are finding themselves, despite themselves, praying.” She quotes the head of a network of counselors working mostly with New York business folk: “‘Every other person we spoke to would get to a point where...

I wasn’t alive when President Kennedy was assassinated. I don’t remember the Challenger tragedy (I was three). But I do remember the exact moment I heard about the Twin Towers being struck on Sept. 11, 2001. I was in my first year of undergrad at Northern Arizona University and remember sitting of the floor of my dorm room for hours trying to convince myself that this was some sort of mistake. Though thousands of miles away, it felt as if it was happening in Flagstaff. It was that gut-wrenching, that earthshaking. In a way it was happening in Flagstaff. It was happening everywhere in our nation. Tears and confusion set in. It was what happened next that changed me most though. It was the first time I, as a young adult, saw people really come together. People who never had been to church flocked through the doors and found community with complete strangers and solace from the words of pastors they never valued...

For those of us old enough to remember – Dec. 7, 1941, and Sept. 11, 2001, were somewhat similar but decidedly different. It was more than just a 60-year difference. It was a difference in attitude and approach. In 1941, the nation banded together and fought a known aggressor. In ’01, we did not seem to band together except out of a fear of flying. Following 1941, we joined in every way possible to save all sorts of things that would be useful in the effort to push back Imperialism and Nazism. Following ’01, we joined together to see who might have something on their person that could be used to bring down an aircraft we might be flying on. Fear seemed to saturate our society rather than a firm resolve to find a rational solution to what was happening. As a matter of fact it was two phone calls from Germany that morning of Sept. 11, that told us to turn on our TV set. The following Saturday, Sue and I were among the first to fly out...

Pinnacle Theological Center hosted a Symposium on Immigration on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 21 and 22, 2011. Here are my opening and summary comments from the event. They seek to put the question of immigration, so pressing in Arizona, in spiritual and philosophical context. Opening comments, Jan. 21, 2011 The great issues facing our communities, our nation, and our world are multi-dimensional. They admit of political, economic, ideological, rhetorical, and theological dimensions. And each dimension effects the others in varying ways at varying times. There is no escaping that. Robust and positive responses to the issues of the day, therefore, must be equally multi-dimensional. Responses that deal with only one dimension of an issue will fail in their persuasiveness and fall short of their potential impact. As Reformed Christians, Presbyterians do not always agree on...