I need a Christmas Eve worship service. I grew up not needing one. As a child, I attended a church that celebrated Christmas during Advent. The church was decorated and services were festive. We would sing Christmas carols and sermons typically gave insight to the Christmas story. By the time the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services rolled around, it was just more of the same. At Grace Seattle, we’ve adopted the practice of making a distinction between Advent and Christmas. Advent is preparation and Christmastide is celebration. This ...

I remember making paper chains as a part of my family's Advent traditions. Truth be told, I wasn't using the weeks preceding Christmas as a time to reflect on human need and the coming of the promised Savior. I was just counting the days untill I could open presents and play with new toys. I used the seasonal habit of ripping off one link of the chain a day as a way to manage my anxious giddiness. When three links remained, I could barely contain myself! I could almost hear Barbie calling my name from beneath the candy cane wrapping paper. ...

Advent is a four-week period when the church intentionally prepares to commemorate the “coming” of God into our world and intentionally look ahead to the promised second coming of Jesus. It is important to remember that Advent is not Christmas. As our city decorates its streets and our work places throw Holiday or Christmas parties, it is formative for Christians to retain some distinction between the two. I am not at all suggesting Christians need to be belligerent and refuse to participate in these activities; such shared experiences ...

Children are meant to worship God. To worship just as they are: open hearted, messy, impulsive, fidgety, emotional, rambunctious, or focused. As seen in the gospels, Jesus’ invitation to children was in full view of crowds filled with demanding and know-it-all adults. His invitation was, and is, an understandable and compelling word of delighted welcome and familiar embrace. As a church with a desire to see kids being drawn ever closer to Jesus and growing into their unique worshiping selves, it is imperative that we continue to accept them ...

Authenticity isn’t necessarily hanging out all your “dirty laundry” for the world to see. Rather it is not being deceptive with who you are. It is a refusal to mask triumph or defeat and a willingness to give people an accurate picture of who you are. Churches are often criticized for being inauthentic. Instead of being places where struggles are shared, the public image of its participants are that of superhuman, faithful, Bible reading robots who hit one home run after another. The church needs to be a place of authenticity. ...

Festivals, a day or period of celebration, are powerful. Festivals shape and give definition to individuals and communities. Festivals expand the imagination and develop the practice of remembering and celebrating. Festivals take individuals out of their own personal dramas and connect them to larger stories. In the Biblical story, we first see a festival held in commemoration of God’s deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt. God’s people remembered and, in many ways, reenacted, God’s great redemptive act. I find it interesting that ...

St. Francis of Assisi famously said, “Preach the Gospel at all times and, if necessary, use words.” I appreciate his sentiment but I think this quote is misleading. It suggests that the Gospel is only an experienced reality, not a learned one. However, if we look at Jesus’ ministry and the ministry he passed down to his disciples, we know that the Gospel is both experienced and learned; that is the Church is to preach the Gospel with both words and deeds. They go together and must not be separated. If the church simply preaches the Gospel ...

Do you ever get sick of yourself? I’m not talking about lacking self-confidence or self-esteem or losing a sense of one’s dignity. I am talking about getting sick of how you wrongly handle situations, think destructive thoughts, or act inappropriately. Basically, do you ever get sick of your sin and sinful patterns that are unique to you? I’m constantly disappointed with myself. I would like to think this is more of an issue of being sensitive to God, but, really, I think it’s just my temperament. Regardless, it seems that at some point ...

I've been around Grace long enough to know I'm in a community of servants. Every Sunday I get to be with people who thoughtfully and faithfully pour out their lives for their kids, their spouses, their church, their communities, and the world. So trying to think of how to talk about service to people whose service I deeply admire feels ironic...maybe even a little cheeky. It certainly feels daunting. So what follows is fairly simply some of my story and some of the Scriptures that God has used to encourage me most deeply in what it means ...

This Sunday, another baby will be baptized at Grace. For those in our congregation struggling with infertility (and anyone dealing with infertility is, by definition, struggling) baptisms are often too painful to watch. We stay home from church that day, or even find a reason to leave after we see the baptism in the order of worship. It is similar to your friends announcing their pregnancies, or for single women, a friend falling in love or getting engaged. Each time it is a punch to the gut and it doesn’t get better the second or third ...

A friend of mine recently shared with me a quote from a thoughtful man who has been dead for a very long time. Gregory of Nyssa lived about 300 years after Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension and wrote a bit about the phrase “And give us this day our daily bread” in the Lord’s Prayer. He writes, “Let us remember that the life in which we ought to be interested in is daily life. We can, each of us, only call the present time our own… Our Lord tells us to pray for today, and so he prevents us from tormenting ourselves about tomorrow. It ...

A growing number of Americans hold some sort of religious (particularly Christian) conviction, but are religiously unaffiliated. In a recent article, Amy Sullivan reported that this population, coined “the Nones,” is the fastest-growing religious group in America, with the Millennial Generation being the most affected. The recently-published Millennial Values Survey states, “Despite their relatively young age, Millennials report significant levels of movement from the religious affiliation of their childhood. By far, the group seeing the ...

On Saturday, 7 of us from Grace piled into my van and headed to the White Swan Reservation in Central Washington. White Swan is home to many of the Yakama people, who have lived on or around the reservation since 1855. Here are some brutal facts about life on the reservation: 100% of the Yakama people are affected by alcohol and drug abuse The average life expectancy of a member of the Yakama tribe is 39 years 70% of the teenagers on the reservation are homeless 65% of the kids on the reservation will drop out of middle school or h ...

Our instincts need some sharpening. For example. My wife often gets frustrated with me when she needs me to listen, but instead, I try to fix the situation. I know. Sounds so cliché. But it’s true. If my wife is upset I do not naturally think the best thing I can do right now is just listen. My instinct is to uncover the reason for the hurt, get to the bottom of it, and find a solution. It’s actually amazing to me how often I inappropriately respond to her. It’s almost like I have gift. Thankfully, I think the tides are turning. N ...

You have no control over your life or that of your loved ones. I hate this. I really do. I remembered how much I hate this on Tuesday evening when my youngest son had an allergic reaction to something he ate. He’s one. Not many things are more heart wrenching than watching a one year-old have an adverse reaction to something he needs—food. What’s worse is when that reaction threatens his very life. We’ve been here before. Our older son also struggles with food allergies. It’s been the cause of sleepless nights and many tears. It’s also ...

“My doubt is actually part of my faith.” - Andrea Palpant Dilley, author of Faith and Other Flat Tires Every Christian doubts their faith, but some are plagued by it. It’s a constant force that pushes them into the valley where they ask if the struggle is really worth it. People doubt their faith for a variety of reasons. A recent conversation with a young woman who is often harassed by doubt revealed that she had tons of unanswered questions, most of which have not been addressed thoughtfully by other Christians. Sometimes it is a ...

A few years ago, I asked my father if he had any parenting advice. I was a new parent and kind of clueless. Graciously, he gave it some thought and then gave me a list of 16 principles he and my mom pursued as parents. Take a full interest in what they do. Be a parent, not a buddy. Initiate conversations and ask questions. Say you’re sorry if you are wrong or have messed up. Encourage them in everything they want to try, even if it doesn’t last very long. If they develop a passion for something, support them. Learn to say no ...

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 ...