We’ve all had them. Strange encounters that leave us asking, “What just happened?” A friend of mine told me of one he recently had while waiting for an appointment at coffee shop. Sitting at a table reading the Daily Office (essentially a Christian devotional developed by the Anglican Church) on his computer, a woman came up to him and asked what he was reading. After telling her, she informed him that she was also a Christian. Curious, the woman eventually asked what happened to his arm. Now, what you need to know is that my friend had ...

It happens every year. June hits and I am exhausted. It’s been a full year of ministry, meetings, deadlines, and initiatives. I limp to vacation desperately needing some rest. I’ve loved this time of year but have also despised it. I loved vacation because it’s been a source of short-lived fun but despised it because it never provided the rest I needed. My frustration was rooted in a fundamental belief that time away from the rigors of regular life is fundamental to rest. It’s not. Vacation does some things but it doesn’t provide the rest w ...

This is something of an insider post. I am writing for people who worship at Grace, though others are definitely welcome to eavesdrop. I wanted to let you all in on a little bit of the thinking and planning that goes on behind the scenes when Jess, Michael, and I plan a worship service. I hope this will help you in your worship at Grace. Believe it or not, there is a method to our madness. Essentially, we try to make each worship service about one thing. Each week, this “one thing” will be slightly different. We vary the central theme from ...

Yesterday, The Welcome Wagon released their second record: Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices. Instead of reviewing the record (which I don’t think I’m qualified to do), I thought I would write up a bit of a rambling endorsement. I not only think this album is good. But I also think it is good for you. Let the rambling commence. In his famous book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis writes about pretending. He says there is a bad kind of pretending and a good kind of pretending. The bad kind of pretending is happens when, for example, ...

Seattle is a city on edge. As one journalist put it, we pride ourselves as being “an emerald refuge in the corner of a troubled country”. But over the past several months, several random killings have shattered that identity. Though I didn’t know any of the victims, some of these killings have hit very close to home. Justin Ferrari, father of two, was shot in broad daylight at an intersection that’s home to one of my family’s favorite restaurants. It’s also two blocks away from where my kids will go to high school, and one block away from ...

Over the last week, Seattle has experienced unsettling violence. A father of two randomly shot and killed while driving in the Central District. A gunman shooting five people, four of them dying, in a University District coffee shop and then traveling downtown to take the life of another. Our city is shaken, on edge even. People want answers. They want to understand. They want to feel safe. Tragedy makes a predictable and comfortable world suddenly seem unbearable. This is intensified when the acts of violence seem random. Our hearts break ...