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 […]

How to Talk About the Environment in Your Church

I hate being called an environmentalist. I avoid using the word “environment.” The phrase “climate change” is not in my lexicon. At least at church, that is. Why? Because I have found that these and others like them elicit a knee jerk response from a good number of people in my church. When I’m labeled […]

God Created a Job

My wife realized early on in our relationship, with a degree of horror, that I am ignorant about art. When we have gone to the local art museum, she has raved about the techniques and the periods and the passion of artists, while I have looked on these same works and thought, “That sure is […]

Christians Should Care About Creation

I was a quiet and well-behaved kid, for the most part. I kept to myself, read a lot of books, and always tried to follow the rules. It was out of character for me, then, and quite audacious, when I told my second-grade teacher, “You’re wrong about that.” It was in a science lesson […]

The Use of Money

[Note: This is my summary of John Wesley’s 1760 sermon, The Use of Money. I have preached two versions of this sermon on two separate occasions and received wonderful feedback. Because people have said this has been helpful, here then is my third version of this, intended for reading instead of hearing.] A dishonest […]

The Reality of Resurrection: God and Healthy Bodies, part four

[Note: this is part four of a four part series on a Christian theology of physical health. Part one can be read here, part two can be read here, and part three can be read here.] A few years ago I had a ministerial intern serving alongside me named Adam. One Sunday morning Adam […]

Daniel’s Diet: God and Healthy Bodies, part three

[Note: this is the third in a four part series developing a theology of physical health. You can find the first part here, and the second part here.] When Daniel sat down at the table that first night, I’m sure he could not believe his eyes. Captured and taken to Babylon, enslaved for the […]

Jesus’ Question: God and Healthy Bodies, part two

[Note: This is the second of a four part series developing a Christian theology of physical health. See here for part one. The three points you need to understand going forward are: 1) Your body is not your own, but God’s. 2) God likes your body. 3) You are supposed to use your body to […]

In Your Body: God and Physical Health, part one

We were hiking out of Linville Gorge, up Table Rock Mountain, when I had an epiphany: this was not as easy as it used to be. When I was in college, I did a lot of camping and hiking. My buddy David and I would drop everything and take off for the mountains at a […]

I’m a Bee-liever!

When I told my oldest daughter, Cas, that we were getting bees last year, she was thrilled. I was worried that the girls would be scared of the bees, or would treat them in a way that would lead to stinging, so I talked about them with Cas. I told her about the bees, shared […]