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Urban Ministry: Making the Switch
It seems that parish ministry is a challenging line of work these days, whether you are in a rural, suburban, or urban context. Parish ministry gets even more interesting if you are serving a church that is considered a new development, a redevelopment, or in transition of figuring out what their future is. At some…
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A Sunday (17) in the Life of a Pastor/Mother: Mullets
The 80’s are back and although there are many things about the 80’s I love – Madonna, wrap around belts, bright colors, and baggy shirts – there are also things I am hoping never come back – leg warmers, big hair, and mullets. I’m not even sure I ever fully appreciated the mullet even in…
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Interactive Prayer Stations on Easter & Empty Tomb
20 On Sunday morning while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. (John 20.1) Typically, the Sunday after Easter, my church sets up interactive prayer stations. After the hoopla of Easter service with trumpets and all the festivities, we center this…
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A Sunday (16) in the Life of a Pastor/Mother: Exhaustion
My kids are troopers. It amazes me how well they do going to church meetings, Bible studies, and other church-related activities. Rarely do they complain. They always find a way to entertain themselves. I do my best to not take advantage of their willingness to tag along. Today was clearly a day when exhaustion has…
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A Sunday (15) in the Life of a Pastor/Mother: Marilyn Monroe
This picture is iconic. It comes from when Marilyn Monroe starred in “The Seven-Year Itch,” where she stands on the grate on a New York sidewalk and the draft from the subway below flips her skirt up. I think of this photo whenever I’m at church and the heater is on full blast. Our heater grates…
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What If Churches Were Missional Outposts?
In March, we were able to hold our 2nd Urban Legacy Gathering, where twenty-two San Francisco PCUSA churches gathered together. This time we were able to gather ALL 22! Since this was the second gathering, we wanted to continue the energy and excitement from the last gathering. While the first gathering focused on getting to…
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Intergenerational Palm Sunday Worship
36And as he rode along, the people spread clothes on the road in front of him. 37When Jesus was starting down the Mount of Olives, his large crowd of disciples were happy and praised God because of all the miracles they had seen. (Luke 19.36-37) In a previous blog, I wrote about my thoughts on planning…
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A Sunday (14) in the Life of a Pastor/Mother: I Hate Balloons
“I hate balloons!” That is what my 3 year old girl screamed as I was prepping the sanctuary this morning for today’s intergenerational Palm Sunday worship. If it had been any other Sunday, I wouldn’t have minded, but today was one of those worship services where it isn’t a traditional service. A lot of time,…
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No Stress, No Fuss Holy Week Pageant & Worship
A few years ago, this worship was one of my beginning attempts to integrate children in worship. At the time, we were just starting to get a good number of children and the parishioners were slowly getting used to having kids in worship. I usually do not like to put children on “display” in worship.…
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Still Waters 