Mr. Locke’s Classroom

At this summer’s PC(USA) General Assembly, I was frequently asked the question “What church do you belong to?” This question always gave me some pause, and I’m not sure I ever figured out the best way to answer, other than saying “Which one?” At the moment, I belong to four different church communities with varying [...]

Tomorrow will be the first of three sermons I’ll preach during my internship here at First Presbyterian Church of El Paso, Tx. This one draws from the lectionary passage (Amos 7:7-17) as well as a few scattered reflections from General Assembly 219 and my personal angst over the ongoing “numbers crisis” in the PC(USA). While [...]

(Also posted at Sacred Space in Cyberspace) PREFACE In a time of deep cultural change, the church has both great opportunity and great responsibility.  It is propelled into the future by its mission, while connected to the past by traditions, teachings, and writings stretching back to the beginnings of our faith.  It is often tempting [...]

There seem to have been a lot of big, exciting, energetic Christian Conferences (especially tech-focused ones) this past fall.  And I noticed via twitter that a new acquaintance of mine, Paul Steinbrueck, has managed to attend almost all of them.  So I asked him what he thought about the growing trend in Virtual World Conferences, [...]

So my break from the blog was a little longer than my break from classes. But I’m still here, and several blog-able ideas have been percolating in my mind, with no other constructive outlet. Rather than jump in right away, however, here are a few shorter “updates.” Weather:  As I write this, it’s snowing outside, [...]

In my Church History class, we have recently moved from the early era of the persecuted church into the era of the church-in-bed-with-the-empire.  This also happens to be the era of creeds.  I get the sense that for many, this represents merely a bunch of names, dates, and outcomes to memorize.  Ancient History.  But for [...]

It’s been several weeks now, and I meant to do this sooner, but here are the audio recordings from my last Sunday at Faithbridge: My Last Sermon — and my least prepared one at that, too.  I haven’t listened to the recording yet, so let me know if it comes out ok. Shine For You [...]