I turned 33 today, so I thought I’d share my 33 favorite messages from FB, Twitter, and text messaging. Birthday salutations mean a lot to people so I thought that I’d say thanks to 33 of my favorites. If you didn’t make the cut this year, see ya next August 25. Pictures add aContinue reading “33 of my Favorite Birthday Salutations”
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Fun Things About Ministry, Post #1
I’ve been thinking about some of the fun things that I get to do as a pastor. Not everything that a pastor does is fun. Along with countless other vocations, pastoral ministry is challenging and there are things about it that are difficult. So, I thought for the next few days I’d highlight a fewContinue reading “Fun Things About Ministry, Post #1”
Soils
Ukraine Last spring, I went to Ukraine and was able to spend a lot of time with one of our hosts, Pastor Sergey. During a car ride, he told me of how proud Ukrainians were of their soil because the top 18 inches of it is perhaps the most fertile in the world. He toldContinue reading “Soils”
The Gospel According to Starbucks
I’m totally taking the title from a really good Len Sweet book. I hope that is ok, Sweet. I was at Starbucks yesterday, getting properly caffeinated before Easter services, and a cool thing happened. A person went through the Drive Thru and gave the Barista a loaded gift card to use for the next severalContinue reading “The Gospel According to Starbucks”
Doctoral Work Reflection
On March 15th I defended my dissertation assignment, bringing to conclusion a three year process to receive a Doctor of Ministry degree… what a relief! As I think about this phase of my life coming to an end, I had some things that I thought were important to “name” and to share. Perhaps this mayContinue reading “Doctoral Work Reflection”
Social Media: A parable
In the middle of a city square was a massive water fountain where citizens would throw spare change on their daily commutes, during lunch periods, and late in the evening during causal strolls through the city. Overtime, the sum of the coins resembled a fair amount of money. The local government considered cashing in theContinue reading “Social Media: A parable”
Shared Meaning
Faith Community Church has a daily rhythm of reading a chapter of the Bible per day as devotional reading. For instance, today’s reading is the narrative of David and Bathsheba, 2 Samuel 11. Yesterday, I was able to join a couple of different groups from FCC in ministry and fellowship. What I enjoyed about spendingContinue reading “Shared Meaning”
Changes for the Skillen Family
Hello Everybody Wanted to send you a quick update about some things that are moving and shaking in our lives. In short, I’ve been extended a call to Faith Community Church in Wichita, KS (17th and Gow area of Indian Hills) as their new Lead Pastor. I will preach for their congregation on 7/22 andContinue reading “Changes for the Skillen Family”
Narrative Convergence
Our 3 year old Avery (well, she’ll turn 3 this week) has two favorite books. She carries them around together, always. One is a small scrapbook of the day she was born. The scrapbook has pictures that tell the story of her birth and has pictures of people who held her for the first time.Continue reading “Narrative Convergence”
Time Warp 2- Sacrament
There is an issue within current expressions of church to not have a constructed memory with enough power to inform our individual local stoies and to help indiviudals to find their place within God’s story. We have long-term memory loss. We can put together a few memories of our favorite times in church, but isContinue reading “Time Warp 2- Sacrament”
Joe Skillen 