Yesterday was the eighth anniversary of my ordination. On August 11, 2013 surrounded by friends, family, and colleagues, I was ordained by the First Baptist Church of Chicago in Hyde Park. The picture above is of me receiving the charge to the ordinate candidate. I’m wearing the robe my parents bought for me as a graduation…

This is another Olympics post. As I said last week, I haven’t watched a whole lot of the Olympics, but a few stories have come across my newsfeed. Last week I was struck by Simone Biles’ experience of the dangerous and heartbreaking “Twisties.” This week I was charmed by the darling and heartwarming story of Tom Daley’s case of…

I haven’t been watching much of the Olympics, but it was hard to miss the news about Simone Biles withdrawing from the gymnastic competition this week. Social media was ablaze with both support and condemnation of her decision to take a step back after a shaky performance on the vault. While the cause wasn’t a physical injury,…

I kept waiting for the Spirit to speak. I kept waiting for her to prompt some semi-coherent ramblings that might speak to something going on with you. I even gave her some extra time, but nothing came. So rather than trying to fill this space with something else, I decided to intentionally leave it blank—blank but not…

So here are a few things I read this past week that have been bouncing around in my head. Feel free to click on the links if you want to read the articles so your own thoughts can bounce around with mine. ITEM 1: Last week, the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) published its 2020 Census of…

In honor of the 4th of July, I thought it would be fun to include a Religious Freedom Quiz I put together a few years ago. See if you know the difference between fact and fiction when it comes to the history and understanding of religious freedom in the United States. In Love, Pastor Annette…

I had two very different berry picking experiences last week. The first was with my adorable twin toddler niece and nephew out in North Carolina. We went to a berry-picking farm where we were given small plastic buckets and sent off into the field to pick blackberries and blueberries. It was so easy a toddler could…

Each June our church collects the One Great Hour of Sharing Offering, but the greatness of this offering is that we don’t do it alone. This offering began seventy years ago in 1949 in response to the devastation of World War II.  It was a national broadcast plea that asked Americans to give generously in their churches the…

Starting this week, you might see a few drop boxes springing up around town and a few different community groups and civic organizations launching different projects and programs. This is part of a town-wide reflection and projection initiative to reflect on what it’s been like living through this past year of the pandemic AND project our hopes for the future moving…

Last Spring, I really wanted to clean out and clean up the two flowerbeds in front of the parsonage. Two years ago, I was proud of my first foray into gardening by putting together a few planters along the porch steps. So last Spring, since I was working from home and seeing a lot more…