MomminginMinistry

When I put the words "Yes, We can do hard things" on my little marquee board early last spring I did not quite know what I was committing too. Because almost immediately life began demanding I do some hard things. Things I could never have done without the help of the Holy Spirit who strengthens and sustains me. Today I did one of those hard things.  Today I stood up in front of the congregation I have been a part of for 30 years and shared my decision to resign from my position as the Journey of Grace Children’s Pastor, effective November 1st, 2022. I will be moving on to be part of the pastoral team with Ryan Albaugh, Trevor Cherryholmes, and Alicia Phillips at The Table, focusing on child and family engagement with the church in our East Mesa community. The Table is a house church network under the same umbrella of the Nazarene denomination which I am already a part of and on the ordination track with. This means, among other things, that we share the same theology, our ki...

  A few people have asked about an update on our daddy... Friday's revolve around sitting with dad and family and coffee. Today Darla brought him his favorite donut. Last May things got really scary and really miserable for a lot of reasons. There was a hospital stay and a rehab and he hated every minute and just wanted to be home. At home things leveled into a holding pattern. About three weeks ago he went through a pretty rapid and steady decline. It was a very real and raw week for all of us. Since then we've been able to find some extra help and a way to relieve some of the stress for him and mom of getting out for so many specialist appointments and feeling alone in a scary situation. Since then there's been another sort of leveling in this current new normal state. Daddy sleeps way more than he's awake. He wakes up to eat but just a little. He is happiest when he's in his favorite chair with his favorite soft blanket. He might ask for his favorite music or a ...

PREFACE: Yesterday I shared a little of what I learned and some of what I included in a paper I wrote for a class on the five generations alive today. The post yesterday included information about the traditionalists, baby boomers, and the modernist mind set that has woven through those years and beyond. Just as I did yesterday, I want to acknowledge that we're each unique and that more than the year we were born, the historical events of our childhood, or shared values of a place and time make us who we are. None of this is meant to criticize, glorify, or over-simplify. But, I think if used properly, information such as this could help us love better as we offer grace, and recognize that God has had a purpose for each of these group's strengths, and that a little introspection can help us overcome some of the obstacles that consistently trip us up.  The post-modern mindset began taking shape after the Boomers hit their “prime” years. Thorsen's book, An Exploration of Chri...

Modern day missionaries, those leaving home to share their faith with others, typically go through years of training on cultural sensitivity, language aquisition and self-awareness. I think this is so important. How many times in history have we messed this up...confusing western culture with the essentials of a faith first formed in a culture that looked nothing like our own. So, when we had to pick a topic to write on for my class, I kept thinking about how even in our own country, state, school, workplace and home, we sometimes fail at these same skills when it comes to working together between generations. Some things really fascinate me about this. Maybe it's because growing up, my parents were always a little older than my friends' parents and I noticed some of the ways they differed. Or because I'm a children's pastor, ministering to GenZ in the midst of a multi-generational church. In the book, Generational I.Q. , Haydn Shaw explains that in the past, only thre...