The World's Okayest Pastor

 Dear Nancy Pelosi, I extended this invitation when Catholic Bishops said they would refuse President Biden communion and now I extend it to you. You can have communion with me. I would be happy to share God's love with you around a simple meal that Jesus started.  This invitation to the table, communion, actually doesn't come from me. It comes from God. God extends their grace and love to all. God adds chairs to God's table of love, grace and mercy. I, nor any other person, has the right and/or authority to deny you at God's table.  Thank you for standing up for what you believe regarding women's healthcare. What many American Christians have forgotten is that until roughly the 1950's and 60's many denominations/traditions were pro-choice because life begins at first breath - a very biblical notion. You are fighting for those who are considered the least of these as Jesus tells us to do. So when we meet, I look forward to sharing in a scared act with you th...

It's June 24, 2021 and I just want to say "Oh Church People!" The current president of the USA, Joe Biden, is a devote and practicing Roman Catholic. Bishops in the Catholic church are in serious discussion about whether or not they will deny Biden communion, one of the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church. This is because although Biden, personally does not believe in abortion, he refuses to sign federal laws banning all abortion and other restrictive means for women's healthcare. Biden is demonstrating a founding principal of the USA - separation of Church and State and demonstrating that religious freedom means that all faith expressions and that one fraction of a particular tradition doesn't speak for the whole tradition (I speak for my own faith perspective and no one else's just like the the Catholic Church doesn't speak to my faith perspective). What I find so interesting is that the sacrament (ordinance in some traditions) of communion was insti...

  In the church I currently serve, we celebrate communion on the first Sunday of the month. Everytime we celebrate communion I always conclude the meditation and the Words of Institution with an invitation to the talbe that includes the following: Come to the table because this is God's table. It's not the table of this congregation or this denomination, but God's. Because of that you all are welcome here.   Some of my church members think that I just like to repeat myself. But I say this for theological reasons. All too often churches like to put up boundries to participation in the full life of the church: membership requirements, approval by the pastor, counsel/boards, reciting certain creeds/belief statements, etc. While these are more formal reasons that churches bar people from full participation in all aspects of the church, there are informal ways of keeping people from full participation: unwelcoming, rumor mills, creative ways of making sure people are not includ...