The wilderness of a rural ministry circuit
I’m now a half-time “missional coach” to a six-church parish. I have many questions.
Bearing the scars
Years ago, at a barbecue in Argentina, I realized I was the only person present who wasn’t a survivor of torture.
The bones in God’s garden
Will my daffodil bulbs overcome their trauma and rise up despite the odds? Will we?
My Pentecostal kin
In my Argentine in-laws’ neighborhoods, there are Protestant churches on every corner. They aren’t mainline.
My retirement to-do list
Several times a day I need to tell myself: I am not busy. I am not in a hurry.
Organizing is about people’s agency
Unlike social services and advocacy, which are all about being helpers
The strangers who saved my life
When you receive an emergency transfusion, you don’t get to choose who the blood comes from.
Encouraged by donkeys
For almost 40 years they have done their plodding, gracious work on me and my vocation.
The transfiguration of Larissa
When my parishioner returned to church, she seemed to have crossed a threshold that revealed her true self.
A church undergoes structural change
The ELCA is about to gather for a national assembly. There are friends trying to dig through the roof to open a way for those who have been left out.
The 2020 Census and the daughters of Zelophehad
The book of Numbers reminds us why it matters who we count.
A pastoral encounter with abortion I’ll never forget
The teenager told me she was down to her last option: a hanger.
Seeing myself in the story of the Feast of the Visitation
I've long identified with Mary's fire. Now I want to learn from Elizabeth.
See the asylum seekers’ wounds and believe
At the border, survivors of violence present their scarred bodies as testimony.
Why I smuggled liberation theology books into Argentina
In a time of terror, the seminary needed the contraband words of Gustavo Gutiérrez.