In reflecting on the success of the TV show, Friends, it's producers have said, "Our best episodes became the ones with just the six of them in the room.” To the show's producers, the heart of Friends was not it's flash. It wasn't special...
For years, my husband and I have joked he should crash one of the workshops offered for youth worker's wives that are held at various youth ministry conferences we've attended. We've always said this partly in jest, but partly in truth, wishing...
As a young girl, my favorite Christmas presents were always books. I looked forward to Friday nights because it meant I could stay up and read as late as I wanted to.
Not surprisingly, I still love to read today. On my day off, you can usually...
My all-time favorite sitcom is Friends. Though I was a bit late to the party initially, I've now seen every single episode.
Let's be honest: I've seen every episode way more than once. I can recite most of them word for word.
Yet, I return to...
The Christian life demands service. It requires faith to be more than just theological musings that are blogged about or even debated with others. Without action faith is, after all, dead. (James 2:26)
For this reason, throughout my career in...
I participated in mission trips as a kid and then worked for a mission trip organization in college. Both ends of the spectrum had a profound impact on my faith. Neither equipped me to plan a trip from start to finish.
My first year in ministry, I...
What do you want to be when you grow up?
As a kid, it seemed like someone was always asking me this question.
For a long time, my answer was teacher... Until it was architect and then later, writer.
Never once was it engineer, which is what my...
Let's do a quick word association.
If I said the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, what would you say?
Perhaps you would say words like mainline, traditional, denomination, bishops, synods, liturgical, baptism, Paul, or grace. These are...
The idea of Rachel Held Evans' book, A Year of Biblical Womanhood, is simple. For a year, Rachel took the Bible literally, focusing on one specific command (targeted at women) each month. It's not an entirely new idea. A.J. Jacobs did it in The...
In her address to the Democratic National Convention, First Lady Michelle Obama said, “We are playing a long-game here." Though the First Lady was, of course, talking about the long-term political agenda of the Democratic party, I believe she...