I hope people who read my site will take time to watch this. The disability community is diverse in many ways and disability intersects with other identities that a person holds. I believe that you will learn a great deal from this webinar, and from others in the series. https://youtu.be/EQ_8KbhRvDQ Disability and Church, Intersection
Posts in the ministry category:
A Lament for Music
I don’t like to talk about things I am not doing because of COVID. I prefer to talk about how I am keeping busy, how I am staying ok. It’s much more constructive. But it isn’t always true. Last week, I loaded up the church livestream on YouTube, and they were singing. Not only were […]
Why Not a Blind Church?
I was ordained as a member of the clergy two years after graduating with my Master of Divinity degree. Neither ordination nor the M.Div. guarantees placement as a pastor. One thing that has caused me some difficulty, sometimes practical and sometimes otherwise, is the fact that I am blind. I cannot say that churches discriminate […]
Teaching Exegesis Orally Via Distance Learning
I am teaching a live video series on Biblical exegesis for a seminary overseas through a partnership between the Church of God and a church fellowship in the other country. The seminary prepares new pastors to plant churches in their own country and raise their own support. Until now, most of my teaching experience has […]
Ash Wednesday sermon
This is the audio from the Ash Wednesday chapel service at Anderson University School of Theology and Christian Ministry. The two texts are Isaiah 58:6-11 and Ps. 51:9-10, 16-17. I suspect the readers used the Message. I did not specify a translation for them to read from. I mention it here only because in places […]
God’s Call is Forever
Do you ever feel like asking God why you were the one chosen to do something? Why not send someone else? That is what Moses did. Moses was so persistent that God’s anger burned against him. Here is what came of that interaction. Watch on YouTube. Text is Exo 4:1-16.
Remember and Live by Grace
My dear Christian brothers and sisters, I ask that you will read this post and I pray that God will move on your hearts to hear the message here./p> When the Israelites were delivered from slavery, God commanded them concerning their treatment of each other and of aliens living among them. These commands were given […]
Feelings of Belonging in the House of God
Today in my church, a person took time to tap me on the shoulder and say, “Here’s the plate,” when the offering was being taken. I took the plate and passed it to the next person. I happened to not have money in hand today, but I appreciated the opportunity to participate in the passing […]
Thinking About Disability Ministry
I read a post this morning written by a person with a disability concerning the experience of growing up attending a Pentecostal church. The author pointed out that her condition was genetic, and she felt that the consistent focus on healing prayer and frequent questions regarding whether she felt better were evidence that something must […]
What to Do with Dones, Nones, and Church-Skippers
What should we do about “dones,” “nones,” and church-skippers? Should we treat them as wayward souls who should be won back to the church, give them lectures about why their decision is wrong? That is exactly what Carey Nieuwhof has done in a response to Christians who are done with church. Why Attitude Matters Nieuwhof […]
What Does He Do?
I have wrestled for some time with questions about how to address a topic that is near to my heart; and I feel that it is time for me to do my best with it, however it comes out. When I was in seminary, there was a great focus on women in ministry. I feel […]
Why I Stayed
Today, while browsing Facebook, I ran across an article: 10 Reasons Kids Leave Church. Every point resonated deeply with me. Kids leaving church is not a new problem, though every generation likes to talk about it like it is a fresh problem that must be solved immediately. As a child of the 70s and 80s […]
biblical studies, chronic illness, disability awareness, disability studies, healing narratives, ministry, prayer, theology
musings on the healing narratives
If a doctor can treat an illness, then why do we need Jesus? Perhaps it is a question worth asking. Is it just a matter of making a statement, of rejecting the world’s system for the Christian one? Or is there really a situation where a miracle can happen? Sometimes, it is both. It is […]
discovering the power of hymns
Throughout my childhood, adolescence, and much of my young adulthood, I spent so much time trying to puzzle out the words while other people worshiped in song that I really did not understand the depth of the music–no time to ponder the theological implications when you are one, two, or even three steps behind and […]
why I stay in Church
Yesterday, I ran across a link on Facebook: 10 Surprising Reasons Our Kids Leave Church. It made me truly sad–perhaps that isn’t what the author was after, but that is the response I have. A few years ago, when I was teaching an adult Sunday school class and we were studying Jim Wallace’s book, A […]
a quote seen on Facebook
The following was posted on Facebook and spoke to me deeply: Go back to the place where, for the time being, the Lord has put you, where He has called you to live your life and do your work in all the trial and difficulty and suffering of it, and do not strain to get […]
wondrous things
I had an MRI recently which revealed that I have “shrinkage of both globes (aka the eyes). The MRI was done in order to evaluate potential causes of chronic headaches. The internnist does not believe the eye problem is responsible for the headaches; however, as a person who lives with a condition that often results […]
What are we singing?
It has become fashionable to rewrite the words to songs so that they are gender inclusive or otherwise politically correct. Sometimes this has a fairly neutral effect. Sometimes it destroys a song’s theological meaning; and sometimes it is quite powerful. As a songwriter and a minister, and also as a person who is a member […]
sermon preparation strategies
During my fourth semester of seminary, I took a course in homiletics (preaching, for those who are not fond of fancy words). In some seminaries, these courses include a component that requires students to analyze other people’s sermons. Mine did not; but I often found myself listening to other people’s preaching in order to determine […]
communion: a communal worship experience
In a href=”https://amzn.to/3xa29yA” target=”_blank”>Exploring the Worship Spectrum, Sally Morgenthaler makes the statement that “The celebration of the Eucharist is not simply a private participation in God’s saving work through Jesus Christ; it is an intensely horizontal, bonding, communal rite.” (p. 51) My church shares communion at least once a month; and I often ponder the […]
students with disabilities, old wounds, and liberation
I once proposed to a staff person the idea of launching a support group on campus for students with disabilities, to provide a place for them to talk about experiences, share coping strategies, etc. The idea never went anywhere; and she suggested that students didn’t often feel comfortable talking about their disabilities and even seemed […]
hospitality in worship
Why am I going on about access to worship, the need for clear sound in worship, etc? Because the worship community is, for many people in postmodern America, the first stop on the way to the encounter with the Holy Spirit on the road to meeting Christ. I have written a chapter about Christian education […]
sound worship
Sound ministry… I am not talking about ministry based on sound biblical principles, though I certainly think this is important. I am talking about the ministry that occurs through your church’s sound technicians. If you send recordings to people who are homebound, offer them at a nominal cost to people who missed the service, or […]
disability studies and the seminary curriculum
During my seminary years, I read a lot (on my own time) about various topics in disability and theology. Some of my reading concerned the need to address disability issues in the seminary curriculum. I am completely in agreement with this. For a time, I considered pursuing a second Master’s degree in disability studies in […]
Does it matter what we sing?
Because I am blind, I have spent a great deal of my worship time unable to participate fully. Unless I know the words by heart or have a braille copy of the lyrics, I am unable to sing along with the congregation. This has several implications for me and for the people around me. I […]
speaking of worship
The encounter with Christ begins with an awareness of the application of the death and resurrection of Jesus to our personal circumstances, sin and shame. Our response to that encounter moves us into the community of the people of God. We become a people of God, one people with a shared heritage, when we celebrate […]
about the call to ministry
Recently a seminary student asked me how I hear God and how I know what I am called to do. I wasn’t surprised by these questions. Many seminary classes open at the beginning of the semester with times of introduction when students share their sense of their call to ministry. In other words, they share […]
seminary and learning styles
In many of my seminary classes, things were presented in charts. Obviously, I needed to find a different way of handling this information; for though I am skilled at handling charts, most charts don’t convert well to braille, and I didn’t have ready access to braille in seminary. I spent a fair amount of time […]
getting my feet wet in seminary
When I began my courses in seminary, I had been out of school for seven years. I was advised by a friend to begin by taking one course in order to see how I did, learn to study again, etc. I didn’t have the luxury of doing this. My financial aid providers all required me […]
meditation on a piece of choral music
Last week I went back to choir after numerous weeks at home with migraines and respiratory infections. One of the songs we are working on is called, “This Is My Word.” It is a very powerful song based on a passage from Isaiah. A friend, Marshall, is in the choir and is working on sign […]
quotes seen on Facebook
I feel like I’ve been on a treasure hunt today! Here is what my friends have served up to me on Facebook! “The kingdom of our Lord…. can not come by legal enactment; it can not come by coercion whether applied to the individual or to men in the mass; it can not come by […]
Capture my memory…
Dr. Lewis says, “Shouldn’t our churches and communities be such that when someone loses their memory, that memory is captured by the community?” My thought: That really would require us to get past pleasantries and get to know each other: hear each other’s stories and learn what matters to each other. I once had a […]