This weekend marks the start of my church’s annual holiday club, called Mayhem. It’s aptly named, as we will run around like crazy people for twelve hours a day for the next nine days, hoping that children, young people, adults, and volunteers will experience God in a new way. This year we have written a… Read More
11th Hour Preacher Party: Teach us to pray
There are some really interesting options in the RCL passages this week – What’s in a name, in Hosea; Restoration and forgiveness in Psalm 85; What happens when a community forgets God in Genesis; Building on Christ’s foundation in Colossians and Teach us to pray in the gospel. Richness and diversity on a plate. What… Read More
11th Hour Preacher Party: To Do and To Be
Along with a group of clergy colleagues I am reading the book “Down Girl, The Logic of Misogyny” by Kate Manne. The book begins with stories about violence against women but then moves into a philosophical discussion and assessment of sexism and misogyny with some commentary on misogynoir (misogyny directed to women of color). It… Read More
11th Hour Preacher Party: Take Time
This rose bloomed on the morning the moving van arrived, a morning full of constant motion and a flurry of activity. As our children and I left the house for the last time, I stopped to smell the rose and invited them to do so, too. The moving crew–five men–all came over to smell it… Read More
11th Hour Preacher Party: how is it July? edition
Hello friends! Somehow, it’s July. For some the turning of the calendar will mean trying to balance a national holiday with Sunday worship. For others it will mean school holidays have finally arrived. For still others it will mean the days are finally getting longer and there’s hope at the end of the winter tunnel.… Read More
11th Hour Preacher Party: Looking ahead
What kind of week are you having? In your part of the world, are thoughts turning to holidays, is church life slowing down? Or are things just as busy as ever? Here in Scotland, most schools have finished up for summer and church programmes have taken a break. Sunday service attendances will be lower. But… Read More
Preacher Party: Pigs and Prejudices
Is it time to start pulling our hair out yet, preachers? Are you preaching from the Revised Common Lectionary this coming Sunday? If so, are you riveted again by Luke’s story of Jesus and the man possessed by so many spirits that they name themselves “Legion”? I can’t hear the story without thinking about… Read More
11th Hour Preacher Party: Math Sunday
Greetings, preachers! It’s Math Sunday, better known as Trinity Sunday for those who follow the liturgical calendar. The Sunday when somehow one and three are equal. Are you tackling the Trinity? Or doing something else entirely? Revised Common Lectionary post with discussion is on our blog, if you need a kick-start. In the U.S., it… Read More
Pentecost Preacher Party
Pentecost is this weekend. It’s one of my congregation’s favorite church days, and they like to decorate boldly. We make Pentecost a “season” because we never want to take down the decorations. Will you celebrate the church’s ‘birthday’? Some congregations have birthday parties, where people bring gifts of paper towels, copy paper, coffee, or other… Read More
11th Hour Preacher Party—onward and upward
I’m not sure where May went, but it’s the beginning of June, everyone! And this Sunday might be, for some, Ascension Sunday…or for others, the 7th Sunday of Easter…or for others, perhaps the beginning of a summer/winter series, or a wrap-up on other events (we are one week past General Assembly, for instance, or for… Read More
