The Pandemic’s long-term effects reach us all. Thankfully, we don’t have to do this alone. Please share in the comments what’s helped you get through this time, or another hard time. Your experience might help someone else. When I was in seminary, I spent a summer working as a hospital chaplain.  I sat with people… Read More »

Happy New Year! Some think of Winter as a time to hibernate, binge on Netflix, and long for Spring. But it is also a time to learn some new things, to let the darkness teach us, and to read some lively words that might deepen our spirit. Did you know that in nature, creatures like… Read More »

We’re all so tired of pandemic, aren’t we? I’ve been sighing over rising cases, masks littering the sidewalks, the anxieties of parents, and the difficulties here at the church of planning for the holidays. Limiting attendance is just not in our church’s DNA!  Pandemic is still a little too close to home.  MEANINGLESS!  MADNESS! But,… Read More »

November brings a chill to the air, and our nation’s obligatory holiday around gratitude. Don’t get me wrong, Thanksgiving is a meaningful holiday for our family, and likely for yours. It shines a light on how Native Americans showed hospitality to the “refugee Americans” when Europeans newly arrived. Times were lean, but bounty was shared.… Read More »

The 2008 crash. I was three years out of grad school, and three years into owning my first home. I was making good money—for a journalist (read: enough, but not really saving a ton). I was paying back a student loan. Propane and gasoline prices soared. I suddenly had to pay a greater portion of… Read More »

How have you searched? How have you suffered? How have you served? The assignment was to write a worldview paper answering these questions; it was part of my senior seminar course at Hope College several years ago. Writing and sharing our worldview papers was one of my favorite college memories, not only for my own process of self-reflection, but… Read More »

“We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started, and know the place for the first time.”   –T. S. Eliot I’m a nature documentary geek. I could spend hours immersed in any program put on by David Attenborough or Ken Burns. My partner, Jane, teases me that… Read More »

We will not go back to normal. Normal never was. Our pre-corona existence was not normal other than we normalized greed, inequity, exhaustion, depletion, extraction, disconnection, rage, hoarding, hate and lack. We should not long to return, my friends. We are being given the opportunity to stitch a new garment.  One that fits all of… Read More »

For the month of May 2021, we entered an experiment here at Central. We “flip-flopped” the worship schedule of our two main services, so that for those five weeks, Traditional Worship occurred at 9 am, and The Well Worship occurred at 11 am. Along the way we asked you to respond, via a survey, to… Read More »

Families and Friends of Central Church, This is the last blog I’ll write as your senior pastor. And while I’m not much of a blogger, I have enjoyed the regular opportunity to celebrate our church and its mission in this space. As I reflect on the 14 years I’ve served as your pastor, I realize… Read More »