Tomorrow morning, instead of heading straight to the office, I will detour to my local coffee shop for Book Group. Four of us meet every week, at 8am on Friday mornings. We drink coffee, or lattes, mochas, or tea. We eat bagels, or donuts or chocolate chip cookies, or whatever food item we might smuggle…

My book group is currently reading Donald Miller’s new book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life. It’s the first of his books since Blue Like Jazz that I’ve picked up, and I’m enjoying it a lot. When Don spoke a couple of years ago at the CCO’s…

In 1988, I signed a four-year contract with the CCO, and I remember thinking that June 1992 sounded like it would take forever to arrive. Now it’s 2008, and I’ve spent my entire career thus far working in campus ministry. It’s very cool that my earlier dreams of working in writing and editing have been…

What a wonderful, life-giving day it’s been here at Calvin College. Day one of the Festival of Faith & Writing has drawn to a close…well, for me it has, anyway. I think there are still some activities happening back on campus, including a Caedmon’s Call concert, a showing of the film version of Katherine Paterson’s…

It’s Festival time again, and the road trip from Pennsylvania to Michigan is behind us. (Whew!) My friend Renee and I are settled into our hotel room, enjoying the free wireless connection and listening to Nightline‘s coverage of the Hillary Clinton/Barack Obama debate in Philadelphia earlier tonight and the Pope’s U.S. visit. This will be…

Last night, I joined several fellow members of my church community for an evening of prayer. We spent a couple of hours praying for our world, for our nation, our state, our city, our neighborhoods, our church family and each other. We sang and we prayed — silently, out loud, in a chorus (all praying…

Holy Saturday. The day between Good Friday, the darkest day of the year, and Easter, the celebration of Ultimate Hope. It seems a good time to share my latest newsletter. Easter blessings, friends. In June, I will celebrate 19 years of working with the CCO. That’s almost half my life. In close to two decades…

Today marks the three-month anniversary of my mom’s passing. I suspect the 17th of every month will hold this new significance for me from now on…and with an intensity through this first year. It’s good to know, in the midst of grief, that while mine is certainly unique to me, it is not unique to…

I’m wrapping up my work day and preparing to head out to meet my dad, brother and niece for dinner. Today is Katy’s 12th birthday. She’s 12. How did that happen already? The first family birthday celebration since Katy’s Grandma passed away will be a bittersweet one, I expect. But it’s a day to celebrate,…

As I ramp up to fulfill my resolution to blog more frequently this year (don’t you love the verb “to blog”?), I thought I’d go for two consecutive days. It’s a start. My friend Renee gave me a page-a-day calendar for my birthday, and its theme is friendship. The January 2 quotation is so apropos…