When your bread and butter job is officiating funerals, you spend time with people living a fractured existence. Death fractures community. My primary roles as a funeral officiant is helping people step into a new but unwanted normal. New because their loved one is no longer part of it. Unwanted because their loved one is no longer part of it. Yes necessary because their loved one is no longer with us.

In other words, I invite them to begin taking a fractured existence and remaking it into something whole.

Last December I felt privileged to be a part of a Christmas traditions episode of The Grounded Presence and this year I am honored to have an episode to myself, one where Daniel and I explore the connection between funerals and community.

I preached the sermon, Developing Love on Sunday, May 17, 2020.

It is a bit odd for someone living on the other side of the pulpit to step back in, but the pastor at my church in Denver asked after hearing me speak at The Gospel of Relentless Love Conference.

Using the image of a photograph, I tell my story of learning to see Jesus in my story. The developing love of the Gospel makes this new way of seeing my past possible.

[Read more…] about Developing Love

What comes to mind when you think about Christmas traditions as child, what comes to mind? What are the memories like and how do the shape the way you view Christmas today?

My friend Daniel Powell is the host of The Grounded Presence podcast, a place to explore “authentic identity, deeper community, and spiritual evolution.” In the most recent episode, he asks questions about Christmas traditions to a number of people, including me. Listen to the episode here and reflect on your own experiences.

On October 5,2019 I presented at the Gospel of Relentless Love Conference. My session, Relentless Love for Addicts (and Those Who Love Them). Here is the video of my presentation: