Posts with the category “m-note”

This weekend, I am traveling to Charlotte, North Carolina for the 2024 General Conference of the United Methodist Church. General Conference only happens once every 4 years and it is the only body that can change United Methodist Church law and policies. There will be nearly 900 elected delegates from all over the world coming together for nearly two weeks to make decisions for the future of our d...  Read More

Earlier this week, there was heavy rain overnight. The next morning when I woke up to walk the dogs, there was an incredible vibrance to the spring colors. The grass was bright green, the irises in my front yard were a deep shade of purple. The reds, pinks, and blues of our emerging flowers almost seemed to be lit in neon. The gloomy and windy rainstorm the night before dissipated and was replaced...  Read More

The Gathering celebrated Easter this year at The Factory, and I want to thank all of you that were a part of it. We had an incredible morning of worship including an offering that will fund our local mission work including our Literacy Project. This weekend in worship I will celebrate the overall amount, and it is exciting. I am especially grateful to all of you that served and invited others to j...  Read More

Easter weekend is here! The Gathering will have TWO worship services - 9 and 10:45am - this Sunday, at a brand new venue - The Factory. Here are 10 reasons why you (and your friends/family) won’t want to miss EasterSTL at The Factory:1. You’ll be able to get a family picture and show off your Easter outfits! We will have The Photo Bus St. Louis! Post them to Instagram using #EasterSTL.2. Incredibl...  Read More

Maybe you’ve heard the phrase, “without pain you can’t know joy.” The sentiment gets at a philosophical puzzle, namely can we know one feeling or state without experiencing its opposite. For example, we know what warmth is by experiencing that which is cold. We know peace only because we have experienced suffering. We know grace only because we have experienced judgment. You get the idea. Somethin...  Read More

I will never forget Easter 2008 at The Gathering. We decided to do something different. Instead of having Easter in our sanctuary, expecting people to come to us. We decided to go to people, and we celebrated Easter in Forest Park under the World’s Fair Pavilion. There were a lot of memorable moments from that day. We almost didn’t have any chairs, we underestimated how windy it would be, so our d...  Read More

Here is a sobering statistic – in 2022 over 70% of United Methodist Churches had no new baptisms, confirmands, or members. That means there were no new babies being welcomed in, no students getting confirmed, and no new people deciding to get baptized or become members. There are lots of reasons for this - cultural disinterest in religion, declining church participation, reluctance to invite frien...  Read More

If you haven’t been to the Clayton site lately, there is A LOT of exciting stuff happening. As one church that meets in three locations – no matter which site you attend – I want to celebrate each of our sites together, especially when good things are happening.Just recently, Ellie Sanazaro joined the Clayton team as the new Gathering Kids Site Leader! She and her family have been attending The Ga...  Read More

This week I got to travel to be with pastors from some of the leading United Methodist Churches from around the country. I had the opportunity to speak to the group, learn from so many others, and hang out with creative and innovative leaders. It was good for my soul. Ministry can be isolating work and it has always been important for me to surround myself with people that I can learn from. I thin...  Read More

Part of our work here at the church is to do funeral services. There is something sobering and powerful about standing up and offering words to celebrate someone’s life. After every funeral I do, I can’t help but think, “What will they say about me?” That might sound strange, but I think it is a question we all wonder about. What will people remember about you? What will they say when they gather ...  Read More

This year, Ash Wednesday also happens to be Valentine’s Day. I’ve seen a lot of jokes going around about the irony of celebrating romantic love and mortality all on the same day!On Ash Wednesday, we remember our sin, mortality, and need for forgiveness. Ashes are an ancient symbol of repentance and so we mark our heads to both confess our sin and as a sign of our desire to receive forgiveness. On ...  Read More

I think a lot of you know that I have a healthy attachment to my little orange Honda Fit. After famously declaring it dead a couple of years ago (pictured here), I fixed it up and continue to drive it today. I am going on year 17 with this car! But this past month, Jess and I started exploring the thought of getting a new car. We even spent a few nights the past week test driving a few options. I ...  Read More

Late last week, I traveled to Washington, D.C. where I spoke to pastors and lay leaders of the Virginia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. It was a packed day where I gave three talks and connected with all sorts of creative leaders. When I got on the plane to travel home late Saturday, I was wiped. When I finally arrived in St. Louis, I shuffled off the plane bleary eyed and did so...  Read More

Changing requires new routines. But it is tough to start and maintain a new habit. One way to make it easier is doing it with someone else. This makes a new habit more enjoyable, more social, and builds in some accountability. Most of us find greater motivation for a new habit if we do it with someone else.  The American Society of Training and Development found people are 65 percent more likely t...  Read More

Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bswise_/49551058501 When we want to make a change in our lives we mistakenly believe that we need to take big immediate action in order to get there. But change is usually the result not of sudden and dramatic action, but of small steps. A principle of sustaining change in our lives or in the world is starting small. I have been reflecting on this principle ah...  Read More

As we head into a new year I reviewed my resolutions from last year. One of them was to write a devotional book. I did it! The other I utterly failed to do. Honestly, I never even started it! This highlights something that is true for most of us. It is easy to want to change; it is harder to actually sustain change in our lives. But, God wants us to change not only at the beginning of a new year…e...  Read More

Thank you to all of you who joined The Gathering on Christmas Eve. I loved seeing so many of you in worship. It was a powerful day and night of remembering that God is active and present in so many small things in our lives, not just at Christmas, but all year. I hope that it resonated with you and that you will join us for worship this Sunday and in the New Year. We will have all regular worship ...  Read More

Christmas Eve is almost here, and I hope you are making plans to join us for worship at The Gathering. Over the course of a year, it is easy to drift from faith. Christmas is a time when God invites us back to what is most important in life. I will be sharing a hopeful message about the ways we can find God in the small things this holiday. As we get ready, I wanted to give you all the essential i...  Read More

Even though December 24, is over a week away, Christmas Eve festivities start next week at The Gathering. On Tuesday, December 19, and Saturday, December 23, we will have early Christmas Eve services for those of you who are heading out of town. It will be the same message and music as Christmas Eve (including candlelit Silent Night), just a few days early. It will also be a chance to give to the ...  Read More

Last January, a woman that was relatively new to The Gathering caught me on a Sunday morning to tell me how meaningful it was for her to serve at one of our Christmas Eve services. She was hesitant to do so at first. It required some extra time, a bit of extra effort, and the rearranging of a few plans – but she said it ended up being the most powerful part of her Christmas. In particular, she got...  Read More

Though I had grown up in church, when I went to college I fell away from going to worship. Like a lot of people, life got busy. School was rigorous, football required a lot, and any free time I used to hang out with friends. Then two guys from the football team invited me to check out a bible study they attended. The truth is I wouldn’t have gone on my own, but since they invited me, I gave it a t...  Read More

Gratitude is like penicillin for the soul. Gratitude is linked to everything from better sleep to lower blood pressure, stronger relationships to better self-esteem. Creating a habit of giving thanks literally and spiritually improves your life. I think that is why God so often reminds us to be thankful. It is hard sometimes to focus on what we have instead of what we don't, what is here instead o...  Read More

Seasons of transition are also seasons of opportunity. I have always believed that. When things change in our lives, even when those changes are hard and unwelcome, there is always an opportunity – to learn, to grow, or to change. This week marks a transition in the rhythm of the year. Fall will stubbornly give way to winter. We are moving out of normal time and into the holiday season, complete w...  Read More

Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away, with Christmas just around the corner, and one of the questions I get asked a lot this time of year is - how can I help others who don’t have a place to go for the holidays or might need a little assistance making the season special for their families?Well, I have a few answers to share…Inexcelsis, which serves with the unhoused and who we’ve often worked ...  Read More

I am thrilled to announce that next week my newest book, The Methodist Book of Daily Prayer, will be released! I’ll confess something...I really want everyone to get a copy. Let me explain why. I write books, but I am not a good self-promoter. I always feel weird saying, “Look at my new book, please buy it.” That is part of what an author must do, but it isn’t my thing. But this book is different....  Read More

Halloween is Tuesday, which I see as the kickoff of a rush of holidays. Friendsgiving, Thanksgiving, Christmas. It all comes rushing at us. This season is fun for many of us - time with family, fun traditions, and an opportunity to connect with friends. But it also comes with struggle for many of us. Grief, strained relationships, over packed schedules, and seasonal depression can all complicate t...  Read More

Last weekend, I, along with five others from The Gathering, returned from a trip to Mozambique. Thanks to all of you who prayed for us and followed our journey online. It was the first time we’d been able to return since the pandemic, and there was a lot for us to catch up on.Over a decade ago, The Gathering began a partnership with the United Methodist Church in Mozambique to provide wells for cl...  Read More

I still remember receiving my first Bible in church. We were called up on the stage, the pastor said something (I don’t remember what), and then they handed me a brand new Bible. When I got home, I took a red marker and wrote my name really large on the inside just to make sure everyone knew it was mine. I still have it on my bookshelf today, as does my wife Jess.I think some people believe readin...  Read More

Yesterday, I, along with many of our staff, returned from the Leadership Institute, a large United Methodist conference hosted each year by Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City. This year, more than 1000 leaders from around the country gathered to worship, learn, and connect with one another.I had the opportunity to teach two sessions of a workshop entitled "Burnout: Sabbath, Rest, and Spirit...  Read More

This weekend is The Gathering’s golden birthday. We will turn 17 on September 17th. In honor of this milestone, I thought I would share 17 of my most memorable moments here at The Gathering. 1. The time I had to sit on the floor during an Easter service at Webster because both the sanctuary and overflow room were full.2. The Sunday I preached a message via video from the site of the very first wel...  Read More

September 17 is The Gathering’s golden birthday, meaning we’ve been worshiping together for 17 years! I still remember the first worship service in our old McCausland site, on September 17, 2006. There was no air conditioning (brutal), no cross on the wall (we were still building it), and no technology to speak of (someone held a projector on their lap with song lyrics). It was rough around the ed...  Read More

Today is my 46th birthday and in honor of another trip around the sun, I thought I would share 46 lessons learned thus far in life. Enjoy, and I hope to see you this weekend. 1. Eat dessert first.2. Run towards something, not away.3. When something is hard, you’re on the cusp of a breakthrough.4. Feelings are too fickle to follow.5. The key to happiness is good relationships.6. Don’t take good par...  Read More

For many of us, we come to church each and every week, but still feel like we don’t know anyone. It is hard to connect with people on a Sunday morning. For others of us, we have friends outside of church, but no one to really talk about faith with. Having a group of friends that we can actually get to know and talk about our faith with can be valuable, especially if you have never tried it.  That ...  Read More

This Sunday, I will preach a really important message, and I hope you will be in worship to hear it. It matters deeply. I am currently preaching a series called Let’s Talk About… where I asked you about the topics, questions, or issues that you wish a church would address. I received a lot of great answers but none were as frequent as questions about sex, sexual ethic, sexual orientation, and gend...  Read More

I often get emails from parents whose kids suddenly express doubt in God or resistance to going to church. Teenagers often question the faith they were raised in, or even reject it all together. Parents of adult kids will regularly ask me how they can foster faith in their uninterested children and grandchildren. Many of us have a partner or spouse that doesn’t believe in God or has very little in...  Read More

Last Sunday night, Dave Merrill (our Executive Pastor) and his family lost their beloved dog, Java. He reflected on the life lessons he learned from Java. It really connected with me, and I bet it will connect with you as well. "On Sunday night, we said one last “good night” to our sweet Java girl. She was with Kara and I for 13 years, and she taught us a number of lessons on life. Here are a few:...  Read More

Are there questions or topics you wish the church would talk about, but that most churches just seem to ignore? Maybe it is a thorny theological question, like war in the Bible or heaven and hell. Maybe it is a hot button social or political issue - there are plenty of those. Maybe it is practical everyday life struggles, like mental health or parenting. Or, maybe it is a question that hits on the...  Read More

In my message last week , I talked about the hardest part of being a pastor: addressing the past bad experiences people have had of churches or Christians. People see the way many Christians engage others on social media, watch the way Christians are involved in politics, or hear the way certain preachers talk about other people and come away thinking, “I don’t want to look like that!” More person...  Read More

I’m back! The past few weeks I have been out of the office and not preaching, but this weekend I will be back and starting a new series. I am grateful for some time off, and it was packed with activity. I started the month of June speaking at a conference for pastors in Wisconsin, I took my daughter Carly on some college visits, our family spent time together on a vacation, and I spent about 10 da...  Read More

As the school year winds down, I wanted to share some news about The Gathering’s Literacy Project.The Gathering wants to make a difference not just inside our church but more so in our community. One way we do that is through our Literacy Project, partnering with local schools to provide reading support for students, as well as support for teachers, staff, and the communities those schools serve.E...  Read More