Starting this Sunday, Kickoff Sunday, September 13, 2026, we will be resurrecting The Flame as our church’s monthly newsletter!

I don’t know how the story of violence and tragedy will end in the Holy Land. But I remain in awe of the work to feed the hungry that World Central Kitchen continues to do there.

At Lakewood United Methodist Church, we have a vision statement that I absolutely love which was written and prayerfully worked on by the leaders of the church.

Following Jesus isn’t a decision between republican or democrat, but it is a decision between the values we find in the Gospels vs. the values given to us by the world and its capitalism, greed, violence, and fear.

A leader should be able to accept when they are wrong and then fix the problem or change what needs to be changed.

When we are sinking on the water, it’s Jesus’ hand reaching out to grasp ours. 

Food is a gift given to us by the world God has created. Food is something that brings us together. Food has been at the root of human revolutions throughout history. And, today, food remains a frustrating paradox.

(photo by Stephen Radford)

White Christian Nationalism, a veritable weed overtaking the field in which God has sown good wheat, is behind the evil masquerading as Christianity in the US. And as people of faith, we must not turn away from it nor pretend that striving against it has nothing to do with our faith (to say nothing of our citizenship in the United States of America).

It’s becoming easier and easier to become less welcoming, less curious, and less thoughtful as a people. And the consequences of that are obvious: we are angrier, lonelier, and less capable of changing our minds once we have made them.

What if one way we can repent from our historic sin of homophobia and transphobia is to be a place that proclaims good news, specifically for them instead of just tolerance? What if we can where people who have lost so much can find life?

This week, Debbie Cooper, our United Women in Faith President, and I will be driving 8 hours to Billings, Montana to attend the Mountain Sky Annual Conference meeting.

My mid-week reflection this week, as I meditate on Jesus’ concern for us to have mercy over any performances of our faith or offerings we can give in church, is what I am planning to share with Lakewood’s Planning Commission when they meet today, Wednesday June 3, to vote on the future of the Lakewood Navigation Center.

We can become convinced that only good people may dare to claim that what they do in the world is in the name of Jesus. But if we read the gospels, we learn otherwise.

Whether or not tongues of fire float above our heads or the winds rush about us, its the belief that we are not unworthy, that we do have something to offer, that we are enough, that holds the true power.

When Jesus DOES come, and we are on either side of the grave, what will Jesus find?

If we claim to be Christians who believe in the good news of God’s abundant and all-compassing presence, we’ve got to remove the word “God-forsaken” from our vocabulary.

Despite living in a nation that emphasizes the importance of expression as a fundamental human right, we have collectively lost our ability to tolerate any utterance of something that is offensive or problematic to us.

Christianity cannot be a Christ-centered faith if proclamations of scarcity and celebrations of individual wealth are louder than the truth of God’s abundance which is readily available to everyone.

Our generation has a different corruption than the Apostle Peter’s.

We must never tolerate when any one with the power to enact it calls upon the death of an entire civilization.