A call to Love God and Love Neighbor

The word “diakonia” is one of the catchy words we throw around at seminary a lot. First of all, it is Greek, so it makes us think we sound smart (seminary people love to be pompous). Second,diakonia is translated asDeacon, a leadership role that many denominations have as a part of their church structure…in the United Methodist Church, it is an ordination order, the one I am called into. Finally, and most importantly, we us the word to describe the ways in which the church does service.

The word Diakonia means service. Not lowly, powerless, oppressive servanthood. But the kind of servanthood that recognizes the need for compassion, justice and lived out love in the world. The kind of service where the powerful and powerless work towards equity in relationship and resources. Sounds good, right? [Read more →]

This is the first entry of a series Ashley and I have been talking about for the holiday season.  Instead of a wish list for Santa we have a wish list for the United Methodist Church.  These are our hopes, dreams, and hopefully what we are working to form in the UMC.  While this is my first entry, I am not doing them in order of importance, rather their order is more indicative of what is on my mind for that given day.  With that said here we go……

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I have recently been mourning my coolness.   I realized that since becoming a pastor I am no longer cool.  The crime is that I really haven’t changed much.  But, whether I like it or not, the perception of me has definitely changed.  Since becoming a “pastor” the scariest thing about my life is meeting new peers, because inevitably the question comes up…..”what do you do?”……….

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This week I wrote my “Statement of Call” as part of my mentoring relationship for Ordination in the United Methodist Church.

The first time I wrote down my statement, I focused on the ways in which my calling fits into the larger calling of the Christian Community, to love God, neighbor and self. I wrote about my role as one person within this large body to acts of justice, mercy, love, hospitality and education. It seemed like a credo or maybe a mission statement about the way I fit into the body of Christ. I liked it a lot, and so did my mentor, but she asked me to write it again, explaining that the board that would pass me to the next step in my ordination process (DCom for you UMC peeps) would want to hear my “personal story”… [Read more →]