Category Archive

Vicki Poli, Leigh Andersen, Michael Herzog, Leah Danao, and I are pouring our hearts into this Saturday’s Messy Church. We took the summer off and we’re praying and planning to come back with joyful energy, and we need your help. We need you with us. We need your presence. We need a crowd. We’re taking Messy Church to Fuller Park and one of our goals is to attract people there who might be interested in… something fun… something spiritual. Messy Church activities help tell the stories of faith through arts, crafts, conversation, and community.…

This Sunday we’re beginning a new worship series called “Come to the Table”. So many wonderful things happen around tables. We eat, we drink, we talk, we pray, we study, we make decisions, we celebrate important life events. When our kids visit us, and we sit at the table for a meal, it’s sacred to me. Table fellowship has always been a value of God’s people.

“In antiquity, eating and drinking in community could be a means of fellowship with God.…

As I write this I’m listening to my girlfriends sing. One is playing guitar and the four of them are singing songs like Keep on the Sunny Side, Hard Times, You Are My Sunshine, and Shenandoah. We all met at church, and we are singers of hymns and folk music. I love that music is a common language for us.

This Sunday in worship we’re singing one of my favorite hymns, My Life Flows On. “No storm can shake my inmost calm, when to that rock I’m clinging.…

I’m part of the Napa Valley Interfaith Council, and so grateful to have this group of clergy and spiritual leaders as colleagues and friends. Some of yesterday’s meeting included supporting the drag show at the Fairgrounds tomorrow night; the faith communities in Petaluma, who have come together to ring their bells once a month to call attention to gun violence; the creation of a website for welcoming and affirming faith communities in Napa; the Walk to End Alzheimer’s Napa Valley on September 9; and a future service of healing for all who have been hurt by churches and faith communities.…

Last Sunday was the first in a new worship series called “Risky Business” and thanks to
our amazing guest musician, Ken Medema, the Cathedral Choir, and God’s House
Band, the risks were few and the benefits were abundant!! Ken also performed at a
concert that afternoon, continuing the theme of risks and benefits (ask Michael Herzog,
Steve Cairns, Elizabeth Robertson, and Ruth Jenkins-McIntire about having risky songs
created for them). Click here to watch worship.

You might have noticed on the front of the worship program (bulletin) the direction The
United Methodist Church is headed: “Following Jesus.…

The New York Times recently ran an article called “What Churches Offer That ‘Nones’
Still Long For”. It’s part of a series by Jessica Grose, about Americans moving away
from religion.

She writes: “‘Community’ was mentioned in over 2,300 reader responses. I asked every
sociologist I interviewed whether communities created around secular activities outside
of houses of worship could give the same level of wraparound support that churches,
temples, and mosques are able to offer. Nearly across the board, the answer was no.…

The New York Times recently ran an article called “What Churches Offer That ‘Nones’
Still Long For”. It’s part of a series by Jessica Grose, about Americans moving away
from religion.

She writes: “‘Community’ was mentioned in over 2,300 reader responses. I asked every
sociologist I interviewed whether communities created around secular activities outside
of houses of worship could give the same level of wraparound support that churches,
temples, and mosques are able to offer. Nearly across the board, the answer was no.…