This past weekend United Methodists from Missouri gathered in Springfield for our Annual Conference gathering. Over the past several years conference has been relatively uneventful. There has been good teaching, good worship, great connection to friends and colleagues from around the connection. The events have been good, but they’ve been relatively flat as well with no major decisions before the …
Roles of a Pastor
Pastors play a lot of different roles. Some of them we’re trained for, some of them we learn through experience (or previous jobs). I can honestly say serving on the pastoral team at three different churches I’ve experienced all of these roles. Because of my background in technology, I’ve also regularly been the geek and helpdesk on staff. What is it you have …
What does Adobe’s Creative Cloud announcement mean for churches?
Yesterday Adobe announced a major change to the way they sell and distribute software. Creative Suite 6 is the last version of CS that will be sold with a perpetual license. From here on out, if you use Adobe’s tools you’ll need to have a subscription to Creative Cloud. I’m a big fan of Creative Cloud as a solution – …
A Big Pile of Rocks
One of the things several of us on the team have discussed is that we’re doing work that we would rarely do in our own homes. The main project we’re working on in Honduras is the construction of part of a retaining wall for the new church building. Roughly 80% of the wall is already constructed and we’re working on …
Honduras Days 0 & 1
We’re wrapping up our first full day in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Already I know this is going to be a great trip. Yesterday we traveled from Kansas City to Honduras, waking up before 4am – a time I usually don’t see unless I haven’t gone to bed. We arrived in Honduras, got to the mission house and ate a late lunch. …
Moodboards, Collage & Community Bible Experience
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Familiarity
As I was out in LA and Portland this past week I had the chance to reflect on the comfort of familiarity. For the past 13 years I’ve attended Adobe MAX (or its previous forms). This post isn’t really about the conference, but the experience around it. The past three years the conference has been in LA, and will be …
One Month In
It’s been almost a month since I started at Wesley and I have to say it’s been a learning experience. Every church has it’s strengths and weaknesses. There are many things I’m very excited about working here. There are also things I miss from my previous position. We’ve received an amazing welcome from the congregation here and the focus on …
Transitions
Transitions in life are always interesting. Yesterday for the first time in years I woke up without a real church home. Last weekend was my last at Schweitzer and Thursday was my last day in the office. In a couple of weeks Wesley will start to become our new church home, but today it’s still a few weeks away. It’s always …
A New Chapter
Last week Bob shared in his eNote about my decision to leave Schweitzer. I’m thankful for all of the wonderful people I’ve gotten to serve with and everything I’ve learned in these past six years. I thought I’d take a moment to answer the most common questions people have been asking about this transition. Read on for more details.
Q Chicago #qideas
I'm wrapping up the last bit of work at the church before heading to the airport for a trip to Chicago. I'll be attending the Q conference. I went last year in Austin and thought it was one of the best, most thought provoking opportunities to explore the role of the church. Q is the brainchild of Gabe Lyons (coauthor …
Ultimate Charades Death Match
One of the great parts of my job is doing ministry with college students. Wednesday nights always feature some sort of crazy activity and tonight was no different. It's always a challenge to balance more sedate activities with more energetic options . We try to balance more active games with less active games over the stretch of a month. Tonight …