Category: Resource Reviews

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Why Be A Deacon

WHY? I am receiving many questions about my new involvement with the Lutheran Deaconess Association (LDA),  The questions come in many forms.  The questions are not judgmental.  The questions express a sincere curiosity, but, also express that people have trouble understanding what this “deacon thing” is all about.  The questions essentially boil down to two: […]

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Book Review: Lutze, Karl (2001) Of Walls and Doors: Processions Through My Life. Fairway Press.

Profound!  Delightful!  Insightful! Enriching!  All of the above.  I probably like this book so much because I had the chance to live in the author’s home for over a week while in diaconal formation.  We were so busy with formation that I didn’t get to visit with him and his wife as much I wanted […]

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Book Review: Have A Little Faith: A True Story

It is not often that I get teary at the end of a book, but Mitch Albom has done it again in his book have a little faith: a true story (Albom, Mitch, 2011).  It really made me mad, because I was finishing it in a restaurant while waiting for my food.  I hate it […]

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An Invitation to Transition

I was afraid to use the term Lent in the title of this blog for fear people would immediately delete.  For many churches Lent has become trivialized, marginalized or completely eliminated because they say it is too gloomy and too much a downer. I believe the trend away from Lent reflects our culture’s fear of […]

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Biblical Principles of Transition

I am in the middle of a major life transition.  It is a transition that I never expected, but it is here.  There truly was a long period of restlessness and then a triggering pivot point.  As is the case, once a pivot point presents itself it requires action and one either freezes where one […]

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Recent Items

  • The Loneliness Factor

    I was at a luncheon that was serving as a listening post for seniors to describe their sense of loneliness and isolation. I knew that the population invited to this luncheon was one that would probably have a higher sense of isolation, but, what I heard was much more intense than I expected. A man […]

  • Social Networks and Aging

    It is interesting that research is showing two demographics experiencing social isolation in such as way as to impact health: Young Adults (18-22) and Senior Adults (65+). I have worked with both populations over the past 50 years and I continue to be amazed at the similarity of the questions raised by both groups and […]

  • An Eye-Opening Awareness: One More Transition for this Guy

    I sat at a luncheon two weeks ago that opened my eyes to a reality that I knew was there, but as the discussion unfolded I began to realize how the discussion, about to take place, was going to expand my thinking. As I listened to the needs of the people with whom I shared […]

  • TRANSFORMATIVE CHANGE: LETTING GOD SET THE AGENDA

    When it comes to the human condition and a desire to change, we can become easily frustrated: we think that we want to change … but we really don’t. Paul expresses this contradiction well in Romans 7:15-24: “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do […]

  • The Crisis of Loneliness

    THE NATIONAL CRISIS CALLED LONELINESS From “LINKED IN” “America is becoming Isolation Nation. Nearly half of respondents to a nationwide survey by health insurer Cigna say they always or sometimes feel alone, and 54% say they feel no one knows them well. Such loneliness is connected to increased risk of heart disease, stroke and premature death. The […]