Exactly one year ago this month, my world stopped spinning - or rather, it spun completely off its axis. I received the surprise news that I was being laid off. After more than a decade of pouring my heart, energy, and identity into a company across two continents, the carpet was yanked out from beneath my feet. As a classic Enneagram 3, my worth had long been intertwined with my work, my titles, and my visible achievements. In a single morning, I felt stripped of the armor I

When we look at the news, follow public discourse, watch government officials interact, or read the despicable things people post on social media every day, it is easy to feel a profound sense of exhaustion. So much of the rhetoric and action in our world today seems to stem not from wisdom or strength, but from deep, unaddressed damage. We see leaders and everyday citizens alike operating from places of fear, insecurity, and pain - tearing down others as a defense mechanism

In hospital rooms, hospice bedside visits, and quiet office corners, the primary tool of spiritual care is rarely a book of scripture, a lofty sermon, or a set of wise answers. It is silence. More specifically, it is the deliberate practice of holding space—stepping back from our own internal narrative to absorb another person’s reality without judgment, interruption, or the sudden urge to play life coach. Yet, as I complete five months of clinical pastoral education, I am le

Old Testament Reading: Psalm 139:1–3, 13–16 (NRSVUE) O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways... For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. My frame was not hidden from yo

If you had asked me four years ago what the Member in Discernment (MID) process would look like, my inner Enneagram Type 3 would have happily handed you a beautifully formatted, color-coded spreadsheet. As an "Achiever" who spent three decades navigating the fast-paced world of technology marketing, I know how to get things done. I understand milestones, key performance indicators, and deliverables. When I officially entered the MID process and was presented with the MID chec

As a Member in Discernment (MID) in the United Church of Christ, the last three years have been marked by a profound transition in my life. It is easy to view the ordination process as a series of requirements: courses completed, papers written, committees met. But underneath the tangible tasks of preparation, I recognize that a deeper, quiet work of the Spirit has been at play. I have come to understand that readiness for spiritual leadership cannot be measured by academic m

This month marks a significant milestone on my path to ministry: the completion of my second year in Project Proclaim, a bold preaching initiative of the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ (SNEUCC), funded by the Lilly Endowment and hosted in partnership with PATHWAYS Theological Education. Looking back, this two-year commitment has been nothing short of transformative. Aside from the incredibly generous opportunities I’ve received to step into the

Every June, like clockwork, the arrival of Pride Month brings a predictable surge of Christian anti-gay vitriol. For anyone watching from the outside, it is a baffling spectacle - particularly when you witness largely uneducated zealots aggressively attacking highly educated, ordained clergy with isolated Bible verses. These protestors weaponize scripture with an absolute certainty that they possess the unyielding, authoritative word of God, completely blind to the fact that

It is a deceptively simple sentence: "Jesus loves all." If you post this on almost any social media platform, expecting a chorus of "Amens" or a gentle nod of agreement, you might be shocked by the swiftness of the digital backlash. Within minutes, notifications pop up, flatly declaring: "No, He does not." Or, "Only if they repent." Or, "God has wrath for the wicked." For progressive Christians who celebrate an open communion table, radical hospitality, and a theology of univ

It happened slowly, then all at once. When your Sunday mornings are spent at Cathedral of Hope UCC - the largest LGBTQIA+ church in the world - it is easy to forget that the rest of the religious landscape isn't wrapped in a rainbow flag. Inside our beautiful, welcome and inclusive UCC bubble, God is expansive, love is a given, and grace is actually gracious. But as a future pastor, I knew I couldn’t stay in the sanctuary forever. Prophetic witness requires stepping into the

It has been a lot. If I’m being completely honest, even typing that sentence feels like a massive understatement. Lately, my life has felt like a beautiful, spinning kaleidoscope of high-stakes callings, transitions, and demands. I am currently navigating the relentless currents of full-time employment, nurturing committed relationships, adjusting to the culture shock and logistics of moving to a brand-new state, wading through the intense self-reflection of Clinical Pastoral

Looking back at the archive of this blog is, in many ways, like looking at an old skin I have outgrown—not because the person who wrote those early posts was wrong, but because he was still in the process of being "emptied out." When I first started documenting my thoughts here, I was a man who had survived the crucible of religious trauma. I had found safety in the loving arms of a United Church of Christ congregation in Phoenix, and my early theology reflected that need for

Introduction: The Still-Speaking God and the Queer Body Growing up, many of us in the queer community were handed a devastating narrative: we were taught to believe that God sees us as flawed, broken, or sinful. We were told that our bodies were battlegrounds and our desires were defects. But as a member of the United Church of Christ (UCC) - a denomination that boldly proclaims "God is still speaking" - I have come to realize that our spiritual survival requires a completely

In recent years, a beautiful and necessary shift has taken place in many of our churches. Pastors are increasingly preaching on the "theology of lament," urging us to stop practicing "spiritual bypass" - that tendency to skip over pain with a quick Bible verse - and instead to sit in the ashes like Job. We are finally acknowledging that the book of Lamentations is in the Bible for a reason, and that roughly one-third of the Psalms are cries of distress rather than songs of vi

The transition from the world of academia - where my worth was measured by the complexity of my theological arguments and the depth of my intellectualizing - to the clinical world of Sankofa CPE has been a process of profound "emptying out." In the classroom, I was taught to fill the space with knowledge. In the hospital room and at the community breakfast table, I am learning that the most transformative thing I can offer is a space that is intentionally, vulnerably empty of

Faith communities often view themselves as bastions of radical welcome, yet the underlying structures of our institutions frequently tell a different story. To move beyond surface-level inclusion, we must confront the concept of implicit bias - specifically how "normative" standards can quietly exclude those outside the dominant culture. Drawing from the "Implicit Bias Workshop" presented at the Annual Meeting of the Southwest Conference of the United Church of Christ by Chri

Worship leadership and sermon at First Church Phoenix UCC on April 26, 2026. Scripture Base: Jeremiah 31:31-34 and 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 Sermon starts at 35:45 Introduction: The Invisible Thread Friends, seekers, and members of this beautiful First Church family - today we are talking about the very thing that holds the walls of this sanctuary up. I don’t mean the literal stone, the desert-baked wood, or the mortar that Omah, Max and the team here so faithfully maintain. I a

The United Church of Christ's (UCC) Committees on Ministry (COMs) currently lack specific guidance on addressing individuals in ethically non-monogamous (ENM) relationships in authorization and adjudication. Grounded in the UCC's core principles of covenant, extravagant welcome, and justice, these guidelines assert that the ethical practice of relationships, rather than their structure, is paramount. By applying existing frameworks like the Manual on Ministry , the Marks of F

Stepping into my first verbatim presentation for Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) felt a bit like walking onto a stage without a script. For those unfamiliar, a verbatim is a detailed, written account of a pastoral encounter - word for word, pause for pause - presented to a supervisor and a small cohort of peers for intense reflection. It is an exercise in vulnerability, and I am deeply grateful that my professor and my cohort met that vulnerability with incredible support a

I’ll never forget the cold shock that hit me when the results of the Harvard Implicit Association Test flashed across the screen. I had gone in with such a smug sense of confidence, honestly expecting to be in the tiny percentage of people who registered as neutral or even, dare I hope, pro-people of color. I mean, my entire professional life is steeped in anti-racism work; I chair a program dedicated to Decentering Whiteness in the church, and the people I love and trust mos