A Sermon Preached on Martin Luther King weekend at Laurel Presbyterian Church “When Jesus Makes Us Uncomfortable” from John 2:13-25 I can remember the first-time church going to church troubled me. It was the Sunday before Thanksgiving, 2002. I was set to graduate college in a few short weeks. I was open to visiting a …
women
Why Do I Support Marriage Equality?
It’s been a big couple of weeks in the movement of marriage equality in the United States. These are the times we’re living in: Supreme Court’s ruling to refusal to hear appeals from several states— making a way last week for same-sex unions to begin Oklahoma, Virginia, Utah, Indiana and Wisconsin Vatican using the word “gay” …
What Makes You Happy?
Recently a friend and I were having the conversation about the fact that women (of course some men too) do a really crappy job of telling people what they need. We’re really good at saying, “What can I do for you?” or giving a passive aggressive piece of advice to our partners or friends, but …
Reading, Re-reading and Dreams
In our consumer driven everything culture, we often treat reading as just another thing to conquer, to finish, to master. In seminary, we marked our progress by how many textbook were on our shelves. Colleagues ask me at conferences, “How many books have you read lately?” Congregants ask me: “What books can you teach us more about?” …
When the World Doesn’t Look the Same
When the World Doesn’t Look the Same Easter 2012: Mark 16:1-8 I don’t know if you are like me, but when I make my choices in entertainment, especially in movies, one of my favorite weekend pastimes, there is only major requirement I have. And that is: I like a good endings. I hope for loose …
Book Review Week: Traveling with Pomegrantes
“I realize what a strange in-between place I am in. The Young Woman inside has turned to go, but the Old Woman has not shown up.” ― Sue Monk Kidd “I’ve tried to shield myself from life and inhabit my own small, safe corner; but there’s no immunity from life.” ― Ann Kidd Taylor “I …
Book Review Week: Bless Her Heart
I don’t know if it is my new addiction to the Kindle app on my IPad or just the season of spring, but I’ve been on a reading kick lately of some really wonderful titles that I think many of you, blog readers, might like too. So, I’ve decided to devote the next five days …
God Calls Us to Live in the New
Guest blogger: Jayme Cloninger On February 19, Washington Plaza Baptist participated in the Baptist Women in Ministry’s Martha Stearns Marshall day of preaching by inviting Jayme Cloninger to preach, a recent college grad who is a friend of Pastor Elizabeth. Jayme currently serves as a human rights advocate for the Enough Project on the Raise Hope for Congo Campaign …
Being at Collegeville Part 3: What’s Your Voice?
When you are a child, it is ordinary to say, “I want to be like ____ when I grow up.” We watch, we imitate, and we learn by being around folks who inspire us the most. It’s the tools of how we figure out who we most want to be. Though usually our first ideas have …
A Word to My Sisters
When I began the journey into the strange world called being a Baptist female pastor, I knew there would be challenges. I knew there would be folks who would throw the Bible at me wondering if I believed in the same gospel as them. I knew I would have trouble finding positions to serve that my male …
Being a Baptist Woman
Editor’s note: back by demand, here’s a post I wrote several months ago on another site. I thought it would be a great conversation to begin again. Several months ago, our church moderator came to me as I was trying to make a difficult decisions about whether or not to attend a normal church event …
The Conversation No One Wants to Keep Having
Today, the Baptist Women in Ministry (BWIM) came out with its annual report on the state of women in Baptist life at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship meeting in Tampa. In it, they reported that there have been some positive changes of women accepted into Baptist pastorates in the last year, yet the numbers are still staggering. While Baptist churches …
