A Season of Beauty, Planting, and Scattering

A Season of Beauty, Planting, and Scattering

  The first line of the Brief Statement of Faith reads, “In life and in death we belong to God.” The church is going through an autumn season of its life. In his book, Let Your Life Speak, Parker Palmer talks about the seasons of life. He speaks of “autumn as a...
A Day of Beginnings and Endings

A Day of Beginnings and Endings

On Sunday, I found myself between two worlds at two different congregations in two very different parts of the presbytery. Kim Faith Mendoza is a pastoral resident at First Presbyterian, Libertyville. First Presbyterian Church is very connected to this small village...
The Opportunity to Lead

The Opportunity to Lead

Last night was the college football national championship game. Just in case you are not a sports fan and might be turned off by an article about a college football game, I encourage you to hang on and see where this story takes us! First, a spoiler alert: University...
Living Into Our Calling

Living Into Our Calling

What is God’s calling on my life? How do I connect with, live into, and live out of that calling? When does the calling become more than a career choice or something I know how to do, and instead become an authentic expression of who God wants me to be in the world?...
Piece-Making

Piece-Making

Thank you for all the emails, cards, text messages, and phone calls regarding the loss of my father-in-law Wayne Gamm. This reflection is dedicated to him. Wayne was a livestock and crop farmer. But Wayne was also a mechanic, who enjoyed putting together anything...
Leaning Into the Future

Leaning Into the Future

My brother is a professional musician, and every now and then, he turns me on to something that makes my mind go in several directions. Last week he gifted me the autobiography of Miles Davis on Audible. I’ll warn you this is a hard R-rated book! It’s raw and...