A sermon based on Leviticus 19: 11-18, 33-37, Acts 10, and John 4: 4-18. Many of you know by now that I am obsessed with stories. With the power of them, with how they impact our world, with how we tell better stories so we can live into a better world. And so I want to start today by telling a story. A story about the power of stories. It’s 2001 and I am in my last year of college….

One of the easiest ways that you can show respect for a transgender person is to get their pronouns right. Conversely, one of the quickest ways to show extreme disregard for a transgender person is to get them wrong. But what if you don’t know someone’s pronouns? How do you ask? How do you ask without offending someone? I hear people saying that it’s weird to ask someone their pronouns and it can be but only because we don’t make…

The other day an article was going around about the city of Minneapolis eliminating parking in order to encourage more people to ride their bikes and take public transit to work. I read this article after having circled the block around my apartment building for 30 minutes trying to find a place where I could park for the night. There is already limited parking around my building and there is currently also massive construction taking place on my street which…

“My church isn’t affirming.” “My dad won’t use the right pronouns for me.” “My pastor keeps preaching anti-gay sermons on Sundays.” “I’m not allowed to be in leadership at my church.” I hear some version of these four comments several times each week. People are writing and asking for advice. They are struggling with what to do. They are in pain. And I empathize. It’s really hard to be in a situation where you are not being affirmed, where people…

There’s that jolt of excitement, a rush of uncertainty, a bit of anxiety. 

I’m not talking about falling in love or starting a new job, nope, I’m talking about deciding what book to read next. If you’re anything like me your list of books “to be read” is a little out of control. I’ve got at least 300 books on mine and I seem to add more all the time. I have three or four books going at a time….

It’s the middle of the week at the National Youth Conference and I am so excited because my favorite speaker is up that night. He’s hysterical; a fantastic storyteller. I know that he’ll have us all rolling in the aisles and I am thrilled because frankly, some of the other speakers have been a little bit boring. But I know that tonight won’t be boring. I settle into my seat with my youth group. The band leads us through some…

The other day I talked about how institutions have to learn to start saying no, today I want to talk about the same need for individuals. How many times in the last month have you said yes to something you really didn’t want to do? Now, I’m not talking about the stuff you don’t want to do but that you have to do; going to work, paying your student loans, cleaning the bathroom, etc. I’m talking about the other things:…

“If you want your church to survive and see the next decade, figure out how to say “yes” to new ideas!” This quote was posted by the Center for Progressive Renewal on their Facebook page. I don’t disagree with it. But in all of my years of entrepreneurial ministry and work I’ve learned that more important than saying yes is learning to say no. Let me paint a scene: It’s your average mainline liberal church. There are between 150 and…

It has been a whirlwind of a month so far and I have to admit that I am behind on my essay writing. However, life has been…interesting so I thought maybe a more general update was in order. So here we go! The first week of August I led Peace Camp at the church I work for. Our theme was Harry Potter: Wizards and Muggles, Learning to Love. It was all about how we can learn to love each other…

photo credit Hillary Olson Photography What it means to be transgender means different things to different people. It affects our lives in different ways. There is no one way to be transgender and any conversation about “what it means” or “what it’s like” is really just a portion of the truth. If you got 50 transgender people in a room and asked them what it means and what it’s like you’d have 50 different answers. 

When I think about what…