Fight Climate Change: Educate Yourself

The pork shoulder on the grill was completely engulfed in flames. I rushed into my brother’s kitchen to get baking soda to put the fire out. But I was ignorant of this kitchen. I opened cabinet after cabinet, but could not find any baking soda. Desperate, I grabbed the closest thing to baking soda I […]

Five Things Christians Can Do to Fight Climate Change

Climate change terrifies me. Climate change is the biggest threat life on our planet has ever faced, and it terrifies me. It terrifies me because I have two young daughters whom I love tremendously. I’m terrified the world they’ll live in will be mostly uninhabitable. Climate change terrifies me because I have seen the destruction […]

Climate Change and Christian Tribalism

I’ve been called a Liberal. I’ve been called a Conservative. People have assumed I’m a Republican, and people have assumed I’m a Democrat. It’s no secret that we are living in an incredibly divided society. The biggest lines of division seem to fall along political party lines, and a vitriolic tribalism is rampant in our […]

Nearer, My God, to Thee

O Lord, I have always found you closer in the light streaming through branches than through stained glass, in the sound of leaves underfoot than the harmonies of organ, in the scent of humus and moss than incense on the altar. Why, then, do I neglect to come here, into this first chapel, first sanctuary […]

The Care of Creation

On Christmas Eve, 1776, my great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, Joshua Davis, purchased some land south of Aycock Swamp in what is now Wayne County, NC. The American revolution had begun, and there was no way of knowing when or how it would end. In 1781, General Cornwallis marched his troops from Wilmington into Virginia, towards what would be […]

When Christians Dominate

Last year, our dog, Sonny, was put down. It was not an easy choice to make. Ever since, my kids have been asking for a new pet. Some days they want a new dog, other days a cat. They’ve asked for pet birds, pet bunnies, even a pet turtle. I can understand that; when I […]

Happy Earth Day

“The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants too. Because God is the one who established it on the seas; God set it firmly on the waters.” -Psalm 24: 1-2 (CEB) Happy Earth Day! The first Earth Day was the brainchild of […]

What Granddaddy Shared with Me

Granddaddy was raised in a family that was not very affectionate. He did not often hear the words, “I love you,” growing up, and there wasn’t much tenderness in his family. When he married my grandmother and became a father, he had a lot to learn in that department. He often struggled to show his […]

Several Small Steps: How to start fighting climate change in local churches (and at home).

Recently I was privileged to be in a room with several other Christians who care about this earth, God’s Creation, and want to do something about it. One of the members of our team is a young man who just turned 18. It’s easy to dismiss someone so young, but he used a phrase that […]

Saving Souls or Saving Bees?

I have often said that you cannot write a job description for a pastor. In the seven years now that I have been in pastoral ministry, I have been with families as their loved ones passed from this world into the next, I have played games and made crafts with kids, I have stirred stew […]