With Father's Day upon us, I wanted to take a moment to tell two stories about my father and leave you with a question at the end. The first story—my favorite one—is about his time as a young new pastor. My father often tells the story

In The Gospel in Parable, John R. Donahue writes that Jesus "repeatedly used economic and social relationships as windows into God's Kingdom and human responsibility." Likewise, William Herzog notes in, Parables as Subversive Speech, that Jesus' parables are deeply embedded in the economic realities of Roman

This past week I got the opportunity to preach one of my favorite texts, found in the book of Acts: "Peter stood up." I love that text because I know how hard that moment was. You have heard me say that I never thought I would

This past week, I made a claim during worship service that I think is important to expand on! I was preaching about Pentecost and suggested that Pentecost did not fully happen in the Upper Room, but it happened when the disciples left the room and went

Beloved, the first time we see fire used in the Bible is in Genesis 3. It is after Adam and Eve have been expelled from Eden. The text says in verse twenty-four (24) of the third chapter of Genesis that God set a cherubim with a

This past Sunday, we stayed in that powerful yet confusing space of Eastertide—the in- between: That place where the resurrection has happened… but everything has not yet settled; Where Jesus is alive, but life still feels a little uncertain, Christ is present but not present. Those

This past Sunday, I preached on the theme “Foggy Faith,” rooted in Luke’s account of the confusion and doubt that followed the resurrection. It is the moment where two disciples, overwhelmed and uncertain about what had just happened, left Jerusalem to return to the town of

This coming Sunday, I am preaching a text I have never preached before. Whenever we talk about Resurrection Sunday, most preachers immediately focus on the empty tomb, or the encounter between Jesus and Mary, or even His appearance to the disciples in the upper room. But

My father was a twin! His twin brother, my uncle, is Donald Bell. Ronald and Donald were identical twins! In fact, my grandmother had another set of identical twins—my aunts Darleen and Doreen. So out of the nine children she had, two sets of them were

Do you remember that song, “Back Stabbers” by the O’Jays? Every time I think about the story of Lazarus ‘being raised’ from the dead, I can almost hear that song playing in the background. Let me pause and explain. Lazarus was not resurrected, he was resuscitated.