Eric Garner, an unarmed African-American man, was choked to death by white police officers in New York City on July 17th. Yesterday a grand jury decided that no criminal charges would be brought against Daniel Pantaleo, the police officer who choked Garner to death. Garner was suspected of selling untaxed cigarettes. What is so unique […]
Black Voices on Ferguson: Saints TE Ben Watson, Rapper Bizzle, Pastor Tyler St. Clair
Benjamin Watson, Tight End for the New Orleans Saints: From Ben Watson’s Facebook page: ( http://tinyurl.com/oo9szxv ) “At some point while I was playing or preparing to play Monday Night Football, the news broke about the Ferguson Decision. After trying to figure out how I felt, I decided to write it down. Here are my […]
5 Ways to Avoid Feeling Overwhelmed
5 Ways to Avoid Feeling Overwhelmed: 1. Don’t be enslaved to pleasing people. Don’t give people authority to judge you that they don’t have. Don’t live your life as if what everyone thinks about you trumps what God thinks about you. Colossians 1:22 tells us that in Jesus, we are holy, without blemish, and free […]
An Agnostic and a Druid on Church in a Bar, Free Beer
We’ve been doing church in a bar, buying a free drink for first timers. Here’s an unsolicited blog comment I received this week following our 2nd time doing The Upper Room. Check out ChurchAtTheLoft.com if you’d like to come join us on a Tuesday night. This post was written by an agnostic who came to […]
Joel Osteen: Replacing Hope in Jesus with Hope in Good Things Happening
Here’s why I’m analyzing Joel Osteen’s Ministry. Here’s the Facebook blurb we’ll be analyzing today: *Is this from the Bible? (If so, where? If not, what part of the Bible contradicts it?) I never like it when people say “The Scripture tells us…” but they don’t give a reference. This is a good indicator that […]
The Struggles of Being a Pastor
As I pastor, I typically have thick skin. But there are definitely days, and weeks, where the skin gets thin and things hurt more than normal. Or when enough things pile up to pierce the toughness that is typically there. Many pastors I know are like me in that if 99 things are going well […]