I’ve had to write a spiritual biography on many occasions, most recently when I did some extended units of Clinical Pastoral Education. In my younger years, I felt I had to explain why I was searching. Today, I don’t think that’s necessary. Spiritual quests are part of living in this postmodern age. Old answers don’t…
These are some reflections on different aspects of Seventh-day Adventism, the denomination in which I was raised, and in which I spent sixeen years in ministry, nine of which were at the church’s North American Headquarters. I left as a college student, and returned after years in ministry … but the journey was not over.…
(A reflection given at a CPE graduation, December 2023). My dad was a storyteller. If you have seen the movie, “Big Fish,” the dad in that film was the spitting image of my dad. Always telling a story. One of his favorites was “The Bear Story,” by the Hoosier poet, James Whitcomb Riley. It’s written…
For a little over nine years I’ve been Assistant Director of Adventist Chaplaincy Ministries for the North American Division; that ends today. Apart from my twenty years in the Army Reserve and National Guard (two ten-year periods with a gap), this was the longest job I’ve had (a few months more than I was with…
This was written at the end of my time as Assistant Director of Adventist Chaplaincy Ministries for the North American Division, two days before my resignation took effect. It is a response to a sermon given at the 2023 Annual Council of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists by GC President Ted Wilson. It was…
(Prepared for SDA healthcare chaplains’ conference April 2023) The best part of my job the last nine years has been visiting chaplains, and so the worst part of the pandemic, for me, was being grounded. We had nearly two years in which we couldn’t travel. I have loved getting back out on the road, seeing…
In the fall of 2021, after Seventh-day Adventist General Conference President Ted Wilson preached a divisive and negative sermon, I wrote “We Have This Hope.” In this article, I’d like to rephrase my points as a personal confession of faith. This is a work in progress and I will continue to edit it. In the…
“Moral Injury” was named by Jonathan Shay in his 1994 book, “Achilles in Vietnam,” but when I talk to veterans of earlier wars about it, they get it. The concept makes sense. I see it in this interview article with Paul Pappas, a Marine Corps veteran of WW2 who is the oldest member of the…
And so as of midnight last night, the 20-year-war is officially over. Today is the first day since 9/11 that new service members are no longer automatically authorized wear of the National Defense Service Medal. This was how the Navy announced it: “Effective 31 December 2022, the authorization to award the NDSM to members of…
Well, it was nice while it lasted. About ten years for me. I cannot fathom the arrogance of the rich who are willing to take something that people love, and spend vast sums of money on it, only to destroy it. Imagine if the rich actually did something useful with their money that benefitted people.…
Isaiah 9:6-7 The Christmas season is a season of peace. We await the one who is called “Prince of Peace.” We recall the angelic greeting to the shepherds, “Peace on earth, and good will toward all.” We sing carols which echo their message: O come, Desire of nations, bindAll peoples in one heart and mind;Bid…
Isaiah 7:10-16Matt 1:18-25 Those texts from Isaiah and Matthew are familiar ones at Christmas time. Maybe too familiar. We tend to blur them together–because of that promise of Immanuel. There are some common themes of course, but also some differences. The Isaiah text tells about King Ahaz of Judah. It’s around the year 732 BC.…
I was in college when I first heard of Clinical Pastoral Education. I was attending Congress 83 of the Evangelistic Association of New England, and went to a workshop by Eleftheria Sidiropoulou of Tremont Temple Baptist Church where she talked about it. I heard more from my pastoral counseling professor at Atlantic Union College, Tim…
I have been doing less here and more on Twitter in the last few years, but with Elon Musk welcoming back Nazis and Trumpists, while suspending journalists, it may be time to return to the blog.
These articles and videos cover important questions to consider before joining the military. Before You Enlist Reality Advice to Those Considering Military Enlistment Ten Points to Consider Before You Sign a Military Enlistment Agreement
Comments for a panel discussion at ASRS2021. Though I work for the North American Division and travel frequently promoting chaplaincy and caring for chaplains, I remain deeply rooted in my own community. A little place about three hours east of here called Houston. We moved to Houston in 1998. My kids attended public schools in…
This was my response to a sermon preached by SDA General Conference President Ted Wilson. It was published in Spectrum magazine online October 15, 2021. His was all doom and gloom, old-fashioned legalism, and the most sectarian form of Seventh-day Adventism. It didn’t represent what I believed to be the heart of Adventism. I countered…
Seventh-day Adventists have a unique approach to Biblical eschatology. Like most evangelicals, they are premillennial (Jesus comes before the thousand years), yet, unlike most, are post-tribulation (meaning that Christians will go through the tribulation and will be the target of the final persecution). This final period of persecution is called the “Time of Trouble.” The…
[Updated 2021] Thirty-five years ago I raised my hand, took the oath of office, and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant, Chaplain Candidate, in the US Army Reserve. That summer, as a student in the Chaplain Officer Basic Course at Fort Monmouth, NJ, I first heard the story of the Four Chaplains: George Fox, Alexander Goode,…
One of my biggest frustrations listening to lots of Zoom sermons is that too many preachers today have no sense of place or time. Their sermons could be preached anywhere at anytime. They never listened to Barth’s exhortation to preach “with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.” They never learned…
[DRAFT] “Social determinants of health” is a public health construct of “conditions in the places where people live, learn, work, and play that affect a wide range of health risks and outcomes.” They include health access and quality, education access and quality, social and community context, economic stability, and neighborhood and built environment (CDC). Most…
One of our Seventh-day Adventist Chaplains, Barry Black, has been in the news much recently. He had his work cut out for him on January 6, a dark day that witnessed the unthinkable, an insurrection that culminated in what he referred to as “the desecration of the United States Capitol Building,” where he has served…
[Remarks given October 2019 to campus ministry leaders] My theme today is a theology of place. I hear some clues to where you all are from in your stories and in your accents, and I see some clues in the things you are wearing—New England. California. Walla Walla. A Maryland flag. I have lived in…
[Advent 2009] We are Seventh-day Adventists. Seventh-day tells the world that we observe the Biblical Sabbath. Adventist says our lives our oriented by our hope in Christ’s advent, a word that means “coming.” We await his second coming in the clouds of glory at the end of time. And we believe that day to be…
[Advent 2009] This morning, I’d like to look at the preaching of John the Baptist. I think he was probably an uncomfortable person to be around, dressed in strange clothes and eating strange foods. And he had an uncomfortable message. But he didn’t care—he had only one thing to do—prepare the way of the Lord…
[Jan. 2, 2010] Today’s the 9h day of Christmas. Like in the song …. “On the ninth day of Christmas my true love sent to me: nine ladies dancing, eight maids a milking, seven swans a swimming, six geese a laying, five golden rings, four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves, and a…
[Christmas 2011] In the year 1223, a year before he died, Francis of Assisi visited the town of Greccio, Italy. According to his first biographer, Thomas of Celano, “The humility of the incarnation and the love of the passion so occupied his memory that he scarcely wished to think of anything else.” It was Christmas,…
Appreciating Anabaptism. A video presentation reflecting on Anabaptist history and theology from an Adventist perspective.
Devotion for North American Division staff, September 16, 2020 This past Friday was the 19th anniversary of an event that is for most of us what the Kennedy assassination was for our parents—one of those days where you know exactly where you were and what you were doing. I was in campus ministry then. I…
Pax et bonum 
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