As I planned my spring Bible study on the book of Revelation, I felt led to include a personal challenge each week to those attending. Not so much that they might take on the challenge but that I might test whether my faith and learning was having an impact on how I live each day. It was a way to be held accountable by others. The first week of our study book had a line that stood out to me – “believe more recklessly and behave more playfully.” We talked a bit in class about what that might look like. I was pleased to see Sarah’s sermon title for Sunday, Reckless Love, thinking this would give me more examples of how to live out this instruction – and it did. There it was again – RECKLESS. That is not part of my...

Once a year at Pinnacle our Fellowship Hall receives a makeover. Not a fresh coat of paint, or a good cleaning, but instead the entire congregation is invited to empty their closets, to clean their garages, and to bring their unwanted items to the hall to be sold in order to raise money for the summer high school mission trip. It is that time of year again, we are in over our heads in rummage that will be sold to the public this weekend. It is easy to recognize the blessing of the sale. We raise a lot of money and that money enables us to get the high school teens involved in making a difference in the world. But the blessings just begin with the funds that are raised. In addition congregation members spend time together preparing for the sale: high school students hanging and pricing clothes along side retired members of our congregation, moms helping post items online and dads...

wo weeks ago I traveled to Dallas for the 2012 Next Church Conference at First Presbyterian Church in downtown Dallas. NEXT is an ongoing conversation among (mostly progressive) Presbyterians about the future of the Presbyterian Church. The organization (now a 501(C) 3) began a few years ago when several tall steeple pastors got together to ask what is next for the PC(USA) beyond the debates about sexuality. The denomination has been posturing itself around these debates for quite some time. Sooner or later...

Is it personal or is it social? The question rings through debates that have vexed much of the church over the past couple centuries. It's been a debate over the message itself. What have we to say to those who ask? Which side are we on? Why is the other side so wrong about Jesus' message? But what if neither side is wrong, except in rejecting the other? What if it's both, and there's a big, wide, whole message to tell? What if the important question is not if the gospel is personal or social, but how it is personal and social? Jim Wallis, from the Sojourners Community, became famous for his swiss cheese bible. He took scissors and cut out each verse of scripture that speaks of God's call to tend to the poor, and the stranger, and the homeless, and the hopeless. With 2000 verses cut out, there were a lot of holes in his bible. And the verses missing weren't just about giving a cup of water or your second coat away. They were also...

Many individuals over the years have asked me what makes a good hymn — of course, both music and text. Melodies that last use a lot of stepwise movement, combined with the occasional leap of four or five notes. There is no better melody than “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” which opens with a drop of four notes and then runs back up the scale of that interval and then back down again — very easy to hear and very easy to sing. Not all melodies are created equal, and if a melody is weak and sentimental, we’ll enjoy it for awhile, but it won’t stick around. But hymns that last also require good text that is multi-layered. I sang hymns like “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” and “The Church’s One Foundation” for many years without realizing their scriptural basis. But once I began to study that scriptural underpinning, every phrase began to take on extra meaning because it echoed with the scriptural context of the phrase. In addition, though, good hymns resonate with human experience. And so we might sing a hymn for years and have it in our memories, but when we hit certain difficult times, all of a sudden...

Last week I had the privilege of presiding at the funeral of a gentleman whose life was, among other things, a testament to the sacredness of God in the dirt of everyday life. He was an “insurance man” and in so many ways a gentleman. He loved to wear a coat and tie. But he was also an outdoorsman, an avid hiker in Arizona and around the country. He also appreciated the value of manual labor. Digging in the dirt. Moving stuff around. His son recalled being a partner in a tree stump-moving project. He and his dad would tinker around in the backyard digging up and moving around trees stumps — sometimes the same tree stump more than once. There was something therapeutic about...

My friend Lillian Daniel is a United Church of Christ pastor outside of Chicago. She's good with an acerbic quip, and she excels at giving words to a disposition. She's been writing for the Huffington Post lately. Last September she wrote a short piece, bursting out with her private frustration with what's now acronymed SBNR ("Spiritual but not religious") talk. Her post, "Spiritual But Not Religious? Please Stop Boring Me," went "viral." It got comments and criticisms from all over the place. She struck the proverbial nerve. Here's the first and last paragraph of her short post: On airplanes, I dread the conversation with the person who finds...

Three plus weeks into the New Year. A time when the gym isn’t quite so crowded, the sale on Slim Fast gives way to one on huge cinnamon rolls and many folks don’t want to step on the scale anymore. The promises to spend less or listen more or not worry so much are but a distant memory for many… Keeping a resolution takes DISCIPLINE. I’ve heard it said that it takes about 30 days to build a new habit or routine. Want to floss more regularly? Do it everyday for a month and it will be a habit. Determined to take...

It is safe to say that I have the best job at PPC. Others may debate it, but I am convinced. I just returned from a three day trip with our high school students to Durango, Colo., for our annual ski trip. I am not a skier or a snowboarder, so it isn’t the perks like a weekend of skiing that steals the title for me, but it is the company. Our teens continually show me what being the church is all about. I have been truly blessed to be a part of their lives, and I am confident that Brandon would second that. I know that many of you haven’t had the opportunity to get to know them personally and to be intimately involved in their lives, so let me give you a glimpse of who they are and what their vision of the church is, it truly is inspiring and humbling. I will focus on our high school group, since that is who I spent 78 hours...

If you don’t yet know about Rachel Held Evans, here’s your chance. In her late 20s, Rachel is an award-winning author, speaker, blogger whose reflections on faith and life have been featured in interviews everywhere from the NPR to the London Times to Oprah. Her first book, Evolving in Monkey Town (Zondervan, 2010), explores the relationship between faith and doubt and recounts the challenges of asking tough questions about Christianity in the context of the Bible Belt. This past October, Rachel finished a yearlong experiment in “biblical womanhood” in which she attempted to follow all of the Bible’s instructions for women as literally as possible. That experiment will be documented...

Been thinking about giving of late. End of the year sort of thing for most pastors, as we watch in wonder and gratitude as our people give love and money to both the church and to many important causes. Giving at Pinnacle has been generous. I shouldn't be surprised. This congregation is full of wonderfully generous folk. In a world of development experts, fund raising techniques, endless analyses of giving trends, "benevolence" mindedness, financial anxiety, economic uncertainty, and more, there is no shortage of talk about Christian giving. As I think about this myself I want to offer up four historic principles, or ideas, about...

Thinking about the new year, I'm taken back to a quote a student of mine gave me nearly 20 years ago. It was from the Jewish writer Ismar Schorsch. Schorsch speaks of the idea of rest and Sabbath which has structured the dreams and practices of many Jews for centuries: To rest is to acknowledge our limitations, we cease our power to tinker or transform. Willful inactivity is a statement of subservience to a power greater than our own.* This idea seems strange to one, like me, and perhaps you, who's been taught to be a liberal, modern, achievement-oriented person. I'm taught to believe that through abundant energy and constant effort, I can gain all those things in my best interest: things, personal security, opportunity, happy relationships, accomplishment in caring and loving others. I want to believe that in my power...

Taken from John, chapter 1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens...

I have been an athlete most of my life. I have also been a Christian. But I have never been particularly comfortable with the combination of the two. Mostly because I do not believe that God is or ever will be in the business of winning and losing football games, track races, tennis, matches or any other sporting event. Ironically, sports culture is among the most fervently religious sectors of American life. Players often point to heaven after a clutch play or a win, or thank God for success in post event interviews. Last year’s game between the Oregon Ducks and the Auburn Tigers was a particularly conspicuous example of this. (And let me preface this by saying that I love college football and think that both Oregon and Auburn are great teams.) In the post game interview, when asked a specific question about how Auburn’s defensive line played against the Oregon offensive line, Auburn Head Coach Greg Chizek had this to say: I just can’t be more blessed to be a part of a whole team like this. Man, God was with us. Our defense played outstanding today. When Auburn star Cam Newton was asked about dealing with...

Here at PPC, the third Sunday in Advent is earmarked for the Children’s Christmas service – whether it’s a Christmas musical, a retelling of the Nativity, with angels, shepherds, and the wise men, or another story relating to Christmas. This year, we’ll be embarking on a new way of telling the story – through the Advent Jesse Tree. This is a tradition that we had in my church in Glenview, Ill., and I wanted to bring it to our children here in Arizona. One of the purposes of the Old Testament is to prepare us for the Messiah – that even though God’s people would not always understand many of the events that happened to them, God’s purpose was to be revealed when Jesus came to earth. The Old Testament is filled with stories that provide history, promises, and prophecies, and they frame the reader for what is to come. The Advent Jesse Tree allows us to journey through these stories, reliving...

Waiting. It's not something people today like to do. Waiting for the turkey to be done... Waiting for guests to arrive.... Waiting for the stores to open on Black Friday... Waiting in traffic, in grocery store lines, for a doctor's appointment. Short, temporary inconveniences. But sometimes waiting is more difficult. Waiting for healing, for grief to lessen, for a relationship to be reconciled. We are a society used to instant access, constant contact, what we want when we want it. We don't like to be told to wait. But that is what God is calling us to do this first week of Advent. Wait. We are preparing for a special event. When an athlete decides to participate in running a marathon, she does not go out and do it immediately. She spends weeks and months preparing her body for the challenge, training it to respond, conditioning it for a variety of potential scenarios and obstacles so she may compete...

Every day is a gift... That is a phrase that has been turning over in my mind the last few days. I am a mom of two beautiful boys under the age of three. With the two of them in the house, every day is something new. Not just in the sense that Brandon and I never know what to expect from them (though often that is true as well), but they are new to this life. Everyday they encounter things that they have never seen or done before — walking, a neat bug, riding a bike, rain, stars. They are seeing the world for the first time, and as their mom, I am lucky enough to be along for the ride and get to re-experience...

In early March 2005, the much-anticipated arrival of the Richards, Fowkes & Co. Opus 14 pipe organ became a reality. Dozens of volunteers worked tirelessly for two days to unload pipes and the thousands of pieces that make up the case work and inner workings of the instrument from the large truck which had carried the precious cargo from Tennessee. A smaller truck had delivered hundreds of pipes the previous month, and it soon appeared that every nook and cranny of the sanctuary building held a portion of this magnificent instrument. In less than a week, the framework of the case appeared on the wall, and in two weeks’ time, a few of the pipes were sounding. The organ was played in public for the first on Easter Sunday, March 27, 2005, to escort the children out to their church school classes. From that humble beginning, the many different...