Confirmation: What is its role and importance?
My new column in the United Methodist Reporter is on the practice of confirmation. Confirmation is one of those practices that has enormous formative potential for youth. Sometimes churches take confirmation very seriously. When that happens, confirmation does a lot of work in helping to initiate adolescents into a mature form of discipleship. But all.. read more →
The Church and Motherhood
In September of 2010, my wife, Emily, gave birth to our first child, a daughter named Alice. This past February, we had twins. Their names are Stuart and Anna Charlotte. I am finding fatherhood to be a singularly remarkable experience. Like many new parents, I’ve experienced the wonder at new life, the thankfulness for the.. read more →
“I’m Mary. You’re Joseph.”
The faith of a child is marvelous. My daughter Alice is 2 1/2 years old. We usually leave the house together in the morning — she to daycare and I to work. This morning, Alice walked into the kitchen holding a baby doll wrapped in a little blanket. “Look!” she said. “It’s the baby Jesus.”.. read more →
Sink some roots into Seedbed
In case you haven’t already encountered it, I want to highlight one of the most exciting developments in Wesleyan-related publishing going on today. It’s called Seedbed, and it is a print and online publishing organization that has been developed by Asbury Theological Seminary. Seedbed is a multi-purpose publisher that offers ministry resources and spiritual formation.. read more →
Theology as a Means of Grace
I had the pleasure this semester of reading theology with St. Augustine and with my students. I teach a seminar course on early church history. In it, we spend a couple of weeks reading through Augustine’s Confessions. It’s a remarkable book—one about which I commented on Twitter that I think it is perhaps the best.. read more →
Sweeping up cobwebs and adding some furniture
I launched this website back at the beginning of 2012, after a good five-year run on my old blog. My idea with this site was to expand it beyond blogging. It is intended to serve as a full-service ministry portal, which includes access to the full range of my writing, speaking, and teaching. A traditional.. read more →
One foot in the academy, one in the church
I’ve always felt like I had two homes in ministry. A part of me loves pastoral work in a congregational setting. The preaching, teaching, pastoral care, and yes, even administration of that kind of ministry is deeply gratifying to me. Over the years I’ve had the privilege of pastoral ministry in a variety of settings:.. read more →
The Danger of a Disappearing Faith
Dissipation. It’s a word that makes one think of mist lifting off a lake in the morning. Or the heat of day gradually giving way to the cool of evening. It’s also a word that John Wesley uses when he wants to talk about the danger of losing a once vital faith, over time, as.. read more →
What time is it? Mommy time.
Sarah Arthur has written a great new book I’d recommend you check out: Mommy Time: 90 Devotions for New Moms (Tyndale, 2013). And trust me, it is worthy of reading whether you are a new Mommy or not. In Mommy Time, Sarah draws on her recent experience with motherhood and child-rearing. She and her husband Tom.. read more →
Renewed writing via ‘Faith in Action’
I took a hiatus from my column writing with the United Methodist Reporter after May of last year. It wasn’t by choice so much as it was out of necessity. I had a number of things pressing on me (including the little matter of needing to finish a dissertation!) that made me have to prioritize and reduce.. read more →