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Word of God Speak?
“And if we’re going to be faithful to scripture, we must learn to love it for what it is, not what we want it to be.” Rachel Held Evans This might seem like an obvious statement for a seminarian to...
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Broken over Breaking Amish
My roommate and I love TV. Good TV, bad TV, and TV on DVD. It is how we relax when we are not working, going to class, or studying. Since moving in together, Carrie (2nd year) and I have a few TV...
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Windows to Christian Difference
Churches seem to fight over a lot of things that in the grand scheme of things don’t matter (or at least seem unimportant to outsiders). One fight that goes on in most every church is over buildings...
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The Space Between Glory and Agony
My time spent sitting in the hallways of Candler discussing idyllic images of ministry in The United Methodist Church seems a world away. Things such as church council, SPR, itinerancy, district...
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Mother’s Day!
So I am preaching this Mother’s Day, and I find myself deeply relying on my Candler education as I prepare for this sermon. By the time you read this, I hopefully will have crafted a sermon that has...
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More than a Shepherd
Prior to graduating in 2010, I had the opportunity to live in Belfast, Northern Ireland and serve at East Belfast Mission. After a year I returned to Atlanta and received my Master of Divinity degree...
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Learning to Rely on God
“They don’t teach you that in seminary”, or “You do not learn this in seminary” is one of the common catch phrases I have heard being thrown around by pastors and laity alike. It is sometimes said with...
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Real Ruminations
Reflecting is the only real way to squeeze every last drop of joy, wisdom, and experience from those things that make us who we are. Real Ruminations are one alum’s attempts to explain just how...
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O For a Thousand Things to Sing
This summer 14 Candler students are serving in ministry through Candler Advantage, a paid summer internship in conjunction with Candler’s Contextual Education Program. Over the course of the summer...
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Ministry in the Deep End
Reflecting on my overall experience with the church, I would say that I was standing in a shallow pool, feet confidently planted on the smooth concrete floor, free to move and walk as I pleased. But...
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Remembering Our Call
This summer 14 Candler students are serving in ministry through Candler Advantage, a paid summer internship in conjunction with Candler’s Contextual Education Program. Over the course of the summer...
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The Best Laid Plans
This summer 14 Candler students are serving in ministry through Candler Advantage, a paid summer internship in conjunction with Candler’s Contextual Education Program. Over the course of the summer...
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Awake, My Soul!
This summer 14 Candler students are serving in ministry through Candler Advantage, a paid summer internship in conjunction with Candler’s Contextual Education Program. Over the course of the summer...
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Where the Wild Goose People Go
“Why the Wild Goose Festival?” the reporter asked me. He was a freelance journalist working both for the local newspaper and The United Methodist Reporter, an independent news site that covers the...
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The Word of God in the Country of Paradox
(For a version of this text in Spanish, see below) On a sunny morning in a working class neighborhood of Medellín, we set plastic chairs out along the walls of a scrubbed, white-tiled garage. We sit...
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La Familia as my First School
Family is the first institution that everyone enters without any registration requirements, admission fees, or recommendation letters. It’s completely loans-free. *Sigh* Thank God! It is in the family...
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“We just need to preach Jesus”
This was an entirely unexpected response to my forty-five minute presentation about a new model of ministry for connecting with second generation Americans. I had spent the last six weeks researching,...
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“What Does It Mean To Be Saved?”
The question came from a 13-year-old girl in leopard print skinny jeans and black Converse All-Stars. This is exactly the type of question I had anticipated in teaching the confirmation class as part...
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A Time To Laugh
The other day, I was writing my last term paper of my second year at Candler, for my ethics class. That week had been full of papers, and I was feeling like I had squeezed out every drop of God-juice...
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