Progress, Not Perfection

I read an article this week titled, "12 Reasons Millennials are OVER Church"  written by Sam Eaton which did something really awesome: the author explained a problem and then offered various solutions to that issue. One of the issues that the author addressed was that people do not feel included in their Church or they do not feel like they fit in with other people. Here is what is written, There is this life-changing movie all humans must see, regardless of gender. The film is of course the 2004 classic “Mean Girls”. In the film, the most popular girl in school forgets to wear pink on a Wednesday (a cardinal sin), to which Gretchen Weiners screams, “YOU CAN’T SIT WITH US!” Today, my mom said to me “church has always felt exclusive and ‘cliquey,’ like high school.” With sadness in her voice she continued, “and I’ve never been good at that game so I stopped playing.” The truth is, I share her experience.  As do thousands of others. Until the church finds a way t

In John's gospel, we see a very high Christology in that the introduction already tells us that, spoiler alert, Jesus is God. We have the incredible experience of reading this text, which is one of our oldest declarations that Jesus and God are One. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.    He was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being  in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. While poetic and beautiful to read, the beginning of John's gospel also tells us that this man is the one that the scriptures told us about, many generations before. The gospel writer calls Jesus "the Word" and describes how the Word was part of the creation of all things. We see something quite similar in Proverbs, but instead of the Word, they are speak

Welcome to the Dublin Youth Blog! I have never thought of myself as a "blogger" so to speak, but here I am writing my first blog post for all of you. This is exciting for me because this will be able to be a central place where both youth and parents can come for thoughts, reflections, prayers, and updates from me. I hope that you will be able to take something from this and that it will be fruitful for us all. There are many things that I hope to be able to share with you through this blog. In my ideal world, both youth and parents would read this (maybe even together!) as a spiritual exercise each week. I know that we all have busy lives, and it seems like sometimes there isn't a place or space for God. As an exercise in being vulnerable, I will share with you that even the thought of being accountable for writing a blog each week is making me question when I will find the time to do this. I stand firm in saying that you have time for what you make time for. I u