Presby-Musings

I have been serving in church ministry for nearly thirty years, and in that time I have had the opportunity to experience firsthand the impact of service outside the walls of the church on people's lives.   It's one thing for a faith community to write checks and support missions and ministries in their community and around the world; it's quite another for them to get their hands dirty, so to speak, and work alongside them.   When we show up to serve, we can see more clearly the needs that we are addressing.  We get the chance to stand in solidarity with those we seek to serve.  It's a transforming thing that changes us in ways we might never have imagined.   Service is one of the clearest expressions of generosity. When we serve others, we embody love in tangible ways. Yet service is not simply about action; it is about posture. It is the willingness to see others with compassion and respond with care. Jesus consistently models this kind of ser...

It's become far too easy in our current culture to feel connected to others through social media or other virtual means and miss out completely on the joys of being fully present.   We stay busy, filling our calendars with must-do tasks, often perpetuating an illusion that we are productive, but then we spend hours binge-watching TV, doom-scrolling on our phones and otherwise isolating ourselves.  We'll tell friends and family we are too busy to meet up.  We'll avoid volunteering for worthy causes because we imagine we can't fit one more thing into our calendar.   For many of us, it's easier to donate financially to our church, community organizations and the like than it is to give of our time.   Time is one of the most valuable gifts we can offer, yet it is often the resource we guard most carefully. Unlike money or possessions, time cannot be stored or recovered. Once it is given, it is gone. For that very reason, giving our time becomes one of...

I'm currently looking for a new place to live as I prepare to pack up what remains in my recently sold house.  There's not much left to pack because most of the packing was done a year and a half ago when I put the house up for sale.  During that time, I learned I didn't really need a lot of things, so now there are carloads of items in my garage and elsewhere that need to be donated.  Even the things that didn't get packed need a thorough examination to determine whether they make the move.  It occurs to me that many of us are like this.  We collect stuff over time, hold on to stuff we should probably let go of, and often (as the late George Carlin quipped) rent space to store stuff we don't need but want to hold on to for some reason.    Possessions have a quiet way of accumulating around us. Over time, objects we once valued become things we rarely use but continue to keep.  Lent offers an invitation to examine not only our habits but also our ...

Building off of Jesus' teaching to his followers that they couldn't serve God and Money, the author and theologian, Anthony de Mello, once told the following about what it means to serve money, even when you believe you aren't serving money:  “The philosopher Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus, who lived comfortably by flattering the king. Said Aristippus, 'If you would learn to be subservient to the king, you would not have to live on lentils.' Said Diogenes, 'Learn to live on lentils, and you will not have to be subservient to the king.” Money reveals what we value. The way we spend and give reflects our priorities more clearly than our intentions ever could.  Jesus speaks frequently about money, not because it is the most important thing in life, but because it has a powerful ability to shape our hearts. “Where your treasure is,” he teaches, “there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). Financial g...

Today, we are going to shift our Lenten reflections toward the third aspect of traditional Lenten practices: Giving.  Lent is a time when we have the opportunity to shift our thinking and actions in how we see the world. These shifts can have a deep and lasting impact on our spiritual life, if we are willing to embrace them beyond the 40 days of Lent.   One of the deepest spiritual shifts we make in life is moving from a mindset of scarcity to a mindset of abundance. Scarcity tells us there is never enough—never enough time, never enough resources, never enough security. When we live from scarcity, generosity feels risky and giving feels like loss. Yet Scripture consistently invites us into a different vision of life. God’s kingdom is marked not by fear of insufficiency but by trust in divine abundance.  Jesus embodies this vision in the story of the feeding of the five thousand. Faced with a crowd and only a few loaves and fish, the disciples immediately see a limi...

This week, I'm spending a few days at an Airbnb in the woods outside Branson, MO.  Last night, we stood outside, looking up at the stars, and listening to the sounds of nature around us.  It was magical.   The light pollution from the city wasn't there to keep us from seeing the stars, and the city's constant noise was far away.   It got me thinking about solitude, and silence and the Lenten practice of fasting or giving up things.   Solitude can itself be a fast—a fast from noise, expectation, and constant interaction. In a world that rarely slows down, solitude becomes a deliberate act of faith. It invites us to step away from the constant stream of voices, responsibilities, and distractions that shape our days.  Jesus models this rhythm throughout the Gospels. Luke tells us that “Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed” (Luke 5:16). He did not seek solitude to escape people or avoid responsibility. Instead, he sought to remain roo...

Today, we continue our Lenten journey by reflecting on something we can add to our Lenten practices as we release the things that keep us from following Jesus more fully: a renewed commitment to faithful worship. Worship attendance among members of faith communities in the U.S. had been in decline for decades before COVID, a trend that accelerated both during and after the pandemic.  The most recent statistics indicate that the definition of "regular worship attendance" has shifted.   Pew Research recently found that only 25–30% of church members attend weekly  or nearly weekly, while 33–40% attend once a month.  The remainder attend rarely.   The reasons for the decline are varied, but the fact remains that fewer church members are attending worship, and in so doing are missing out on something extremely important to their spiritual formation.   You see, corporate worship is a vital part of our life together as a community of faith....