Pastor’s Ponderings

In recent weeks, I have lifted up the various parts of the Sunday worship service. Today, we come to the Pastoral Prayer or Concerns and Prayers. This can take various forms and is practiced in different ways. It may be a brief prayer of petition and words of...

In the recent Pastor Ponderings, I wrote about gathering and centering ourselves and hearing the proclamation of the word through scripture and sermon and taking time to reflect on the word. Last week I wrote about the role of music in worship. Today I want to talk...

Music and Song is a big part of every worship service. We are so fortunate to have a gifted director of music and many talented musicians that provide us with music each Sunday. Music has a way of stirring our hearts and lifting our imagination. When we hear voiced...

We are used to hearing about storms that are destructive of coastal areas of Florida, Louisiana, Puerto Rico and Texas. We are not used to hearing of damage that took place hundred and even thousands of miles inland across such a vast region.  The scope of the damage...

Last week, I talked about what we do in each Sunday worship service. We start by making a transition from what we have been doing to give our attention to God and the things of God. We gather, we settle into the worship space, we pause, we join our voices in a...

Not every church worships in the same way. Some congregations have guitars and praise music, while others have an organ or piano. Some churches worship in a space that resembles an auditorium, while others sit in a circle of folding chairs.  Some churches emphasize...

The "Grand Reopening" of the New Nursery will be on Sunday, September 22!  Special thanks to Fred Schumacher for his diligent efforts and ongoing optimism in coordinating all of the contractors who worked on this project and in managing the many obstacles that crept...

I had coffee with an acquaintance last week. We were both interested in learning more about each other. It turns out we had overlapped a bit at the same high school years ago and had some friends in common.   It was a good conversation. We didn’t talk about what...

Today we held a memorial service for Eleanor Bowersox, a longtime member of Calvary United Methodist Church. We heard remembrances of her life, and we were reminded once again of God’s steadfast love that is available not only in this life but in the life that is to...

Here is a prayer that was written by a friend and colleague, Rev. Ginger Gaines Cirelli, the Lead Pastor of Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, DC. God who is beyond politics and nations, Christ who transcends the power of violence, Holy Spirit who animates...