02
Feb 2018
Popular Patheos blogger Benjamin Corley recently published a book titled “Unafraid: Moving Beyond Fear-Based Faith.” Corley grew up in an ultra-conservative, hell fire and brimstone tradition where sin, judgment, and the wrath of God were pivotal parts of the theology. Years later, he suffered a mid-life spiritual awakening. He asked himself, “Why would God seek to punish and torture his creation? Why are so many Christians taught that we are undeserving, inadequate, unloved, and damned?” It no longer made sense in his mind. He was over it, and he’s not alone. Many in our culture have had it......
Read More
09
Jan 2018
“I feel like I’ve turned the corner.” That’s a common phrase. I think most of us have probably said it at some point in time. It means that we feel like things are going to get better. We’ve gotten over the hump. A rough season is behind us.You know what makes a literal mockery out of that statement? Climbing out of the Grand Canyon. You see, there are no elevators or escalators in the Grand Canyon and stairs only make cameo appearances. That’s an obvious statement, but you don’t truly appreciate the......
Read More
02
Jan 2018
We have now turned the page on 2017 and what a year it has been! The New Year is an ideal time to reflect and to look ahead. What will we remember from last year? Trump’s Inauguration? The women’s march on Washington? Travel bans debated in the courts? Debates over the Dreamers? Political uprisings in Europe? The aggression of North Korea? The suicide bombing at a concert in Manchester? The removal of confederate monuments? The Charlottesville incident? The firing of James Comey? The ongoing FBI investigation? The surging stock market? The Las......
Read More
05
Dec 2017
Our Christmas tree is decorated. It was my seven-year old Rose’s year to climb the ladder and place the gilt-winged angel on the top. Elise carefully unwrapped the santons I collected years ago in France and placed the nativity figures in the arch window. Charlie hung the six stockings and pulled out the Santa mugs for hot chocolate. Percy (4) and Finn (almost 2) have already managed to run out the batteries in the “Dancing Santa” (Thank the lord!). “Candycane,” the Mason family elf-on-the-shelf, has made his first appearance perched on the......
Read More
28
Nov 2017
As we begin the transition from Thanksgiving to the Christmas Season and all of the hustle and bustle that the holidays bring, it occurs to me that there are two basic ways to approach life (and shades of each). The first is the way of fear and it could be called an “ontologically disappointed life.” With this approach, life is a burden, people always let you down, nothing is ever good enough, and life is unfair. This approach is grounded in cynicism, negativity, pessimism, and disappointment. Fear becomes the dominating emotion and......
Read More
21
Nov 2017
At the end of December, Thom Schuyler will be retiring from his position here at Woodmont and moving to Jekyll Island, GA. It will be very hard to imagine Woodmont Christian Church without Thom around. He has been a leader in this congregation for many years, first as a lay leader and then as a dedicated member of our staff team. Thom was born and raised in Bethlehem, PA. He developed an affinity for music at a young age and clearly had a gift for writing songs. He says it was Old......
Read More
11
Nov 2017
I spent the majority of last week back in Princeton for a conference on polarization and the role the church should play. It was led by a guy named Allen Hilton, a Yale Ph.D. and a former New Testament professor at Yale. He has now formed an organization called “House United” with the sole purpose of bridging the theological and ideological divides within Christianity to honor Jesus’ final prayer in John 17 that “all would be one so that the world might believe.” The conference was fascinating and I will be sharing......
Read More
24
Oct 2017
On Sunday, we focused on spiritual growth and formation and we talked about “Five Basic Spiritual Moves” that all of us should try to make. First, from fear to love. Second, from sorrow to joy. Third, from turmoil to peace. Fourth, from coldness to kindness. And fifth, from resentment to gratitude. Nouwen describes spiritual formation this way: “Spiritual formation prepares us for a life in which we move away from our fears, compulsions, resentments, and sorrows, to serve with joy and courage in the world, even when this leads us to places......
Read More
10
Oct 2017
It’s happened again, only worse than the last time. Last Sunday night, 22,000 people were enjoying the final night of a country music festival on the Vegas strip excited to hear Jason Aldean when they became open targets for a sick, deranged man shooting from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay resort and casino. These were sons and daughters, husbands and wives, children and grandchildren, good people living their lives. Now many of those lives are over with their families grieving and picking up the broken pieces. Fifty-nine are dead, over......
Read More
24
Sep 2017
Recently, I sat around the table with about twenty seasoned men from our church who meet every Monday. Most of them are now retired and in their seventies or eighties. I was interested in picking their brains about life and what they have learned and experienced throughout the years. I am convinced that many in the younger generations do not take the time to soak up wisdom from those who now have the advantage of reflecting back upon their life. They have fought the battles, learned the lessons, and have the scars......
Read More