One of the most ancient parts of Christian liturgy is the Sursum Corda – “Lift up your hearts” at the Eucharist.  While this has a spiritual dimension, yesterday the church staff learned about lifting hearts medically.  St Timothy’s now has a defibrillator in the narthex.  Every staff member was trained on how to use it, but even if you’ve never heard of one, you can use it too.  Nestled in a cabinet in the welcome center (clearly marked) is a red bag.  Once you open the bag and press the green …

During one of the car rides to and fro Grandma’s house this Labor Day, I listened to several podcasts to pass the time.  One of my favorite speakers is Fr. Thomas Hopko, a priest in the Orthodox Church in America and dean emeritus of St Vladimir’s Orthodox Seminary in New York.  The latest podcast (you can listen here) was on Fear and Anxiety.
The main takeaway for me is that God is a God of reality.  God is not in fantasy.  The Incarnation is about God being with us in our reality.  Fantasy …

Many people struggle at work because they want more authority.
It turns out you can get a lot done if you just take more responsbility instead. It’s often offered, rarely taken.
(And you can get even more done if you give away credit, relentlessly).
from Seth Godin.  Can we substitute ‘work’ for ‘life’ as well?

A week ago, Fr. Tom Brackett was our keynote speaker on Day 2 at our Missional Church Summit.  His contribution was significant in that he challenged us to do at least two very powerful things.  First, to tell (and listen!) to stories.  By stories, we don’t mean “Once Upon a Time,” but rather “this past week I really felt close to Christ when…”  Uh oh.  Did I just write that?  Do Episcopalians talk like that?  We should.  This is not just a statement from a church growth guru, this is …

I just looked up post-mortem on Merriam-Webster (I wanted to be sure my Latin was correct).  There are two definitions for it – 1 – done, occurring, or collected after death, and 2 – following the event.
This post is specifically aimed at definition number 2 – following the Missional Church Summit – but I think I need to change the title of this post now.  I don’t know what the Latin should be, but maybe something like “Post-Vita” because the reflections following our time with Bishop Monterroso, Frs. Brackett and …

As God as my witness, the title for this post is not to butter up any of our Right Reverend Fathers in God who wear purple.  But as I was driving in this morning thinking about the schedule for the day (which includes picking up Bishop Monterroso from the airport) I found myself getting excited.  A bishop is coming.
‘Twas not always the case for me.  I grew up and served in a church where the bishops were quite powerful, whose responsibilities made them essentially CEOs, and were in many cases …

I want to spend this morning’s post letting you know where we are in staffing our youth and children’s programs.  With the departure of Pam and Bobby earlier this summer we have some big holes to fill, but this also leads to new opportunities.  I have met with the youth and children’s commissions and we’ve tweaked some things here and there via email and we’re just about ready to publicize a job description – but for one, not two positions.  If you remember, last month I mentioned the working possibility …

Confirmation preparation for adults in many churches has long been reduced to a few sessions on Episcopal Church history, polity (organization), worship, and a bit of theology.  While this is all well and good, it really doesn’t speak to the purpose of confirmation – to ratify the baptismal covenant.
Bishop Marble will be visiting us this Fall and starting this Sunday at 3pm we are going to do confirmation a bit differently.  We’re not starting with the history of the Episcopal Church, we are starting at the beginning.  THE beginning.  This …

I can’t remember where, but I think in the old Father Steve’s Morning Email I shared my thoughts about ministry burnout – mainly being that burnout is not always caused by volume but instead by having your energy drained.
Just because you are good at something does not mean that is where your passions lie.  There is a commercial on television now where women and men, all in their middle age, are sharing what they would like to do ‘when they grow up.’  What is clear is that their passion is …

After being apart from my family for 19 days, Cherilyn and I had a date night.  Surprisingly, date night when you’re married with children is not all that different than date night when you’re 17 – at least in terms of structure.
Date night when you’re 17 usually consists of dinner and a movie.  When you’re just starting out that movie is a real, honest-to-goodness movie in a theater with buttered popcorn and the whole nine yards.  Choices were easier.  In my hometown we only had two theaters – one was …