Welcome to this website.

I remember seeing my first computer in the 1980's, when I was in my late teens.

I remember first sending emails and working on websites in the 1990's, when I was in my twenties.

I remember first joining Facebook and Twitter in the early 2000's, when I was in my thirties.

By 2014, I was in my forties. I taught my church about social media that year. I wondered why one of the older people in my workshop said he didn't think Facebook would be good for his soul. Now, I understand.

These days, the internet isn't new or exciting; neither is social media. They are the everyday fabric of most people's lives. I'm deeply ambivalent about that.

And yet.

And yet the revolution that the internet brought to society, reshaping absolutely every assumption and institution that existed, can't be denied. It's as obvious as the fact that I can write these words, hit "publish," and anyone anywhere in the world who wants to see them can see them.

And so, because I need to write, I made a website.

I didn't make it - I can't code. I purchased a subscription to Ghost and imported my old content. (Substack just didn't feel right to me, or I'd be over there. I don't know why it didn't feel right, but it didn't.)

Why am I writing again?

Once upon a time, from about 2011 through about 2017, I was a writer and a priest. I started my own blog, then a group blog for my church. A church publisher asked me to write a book, so I did.

But from about 2018 on, there wasn't time to write. I was founding a non-profit that was growing faster than I could handle. And I was serving my church: specific communities of faith, and my diocese as we coped with difficult times. I was on such a huge learning curve, there was no room for anything but learning.

I learned about leadership and management. I learned about finance and fundraising. I learned how to incorporate a new Episcopal entity. I learned about legacy issues in the Episcopal Church. And I learned about myself.

Now, it's time to try to sort through some of what I've learned and make it usable for others.

Some what I learned was painful. Other lessons brought me deep joy.

My sense is that in the coming years, there will be plenty to write about.

What am I going to write about?

This site's tagline is "love God and lead change." As I've reflected on what I expect to write about, these themes consistently emerge. I believe loving God – hoping in God alone, as St. Benedict taught - is our primary human calling.

When we love God first and best, we see all humans as made in God's image. We see this earth as God's beloved creation. God changes us in love, as we love God. Leading change starts from within.

To get started, I've ported over legacy content from www.churchwork.com, my old blog. Legacy content is tagged either My Faith Practice or The Episcopal Church. I'll be keeping these categories up as I add content.

🍃 My Faith Practice

My Faith Practice content is about human life: family matters, current events, life lessons. My goal with this content is to be a witness to a practice of Christian faith grounded in love. Too often I'm troubled by the way I see Christianity portrayed in the public square. I want to try to change that.

For me, loving God includes figuring out how to care for God's creation more wisely – both in speech and in action as the climate crisis continues. I'll be working through that here, as a person who has lots of my own growing to do.

Do you need to be a Christian to read these posts? Absolutely not. I'm writing them for all humans; I just want you to know they come from a Christian perspective.

⛪ The Episcopal Church

The Episcopal Church content is about... the Episcopal Church! (You're shocked, I know.) My goal with this content is to help Episcopalians lead and manage change in our church.

I want to see my church organized to support the practice of faith, including with younger generations. Instead, we're mostly in decline.

In my opinion, too much of our decline can be traced back to a weird combination of lack of risk-taking faith and lack of effective management. These are organizational culture issues, and every Episcopalian can help lead change. If you're an Episcopalian who wants to practice risk-taking faith and grow as a leader and manager, you're in the right place. I know how this works, I've done it before, and I'm not finished yet. (I believe our new Presiding Bishop is working on this also, for which I give thanks to God!)

All past posts are organized into these two categories. There's very little overlap.

How does this site work?

This site is hosted by Ghost, which is a new platform for me.

Ghost, like Substack, uses a membership model. That means if you give me your email address, you become a member of the site. Thank you! It's free to you and encouraging to me.

Right now, all content is available to everyone. At some point, I plan to provide more content just for members. I'll announce that before it happens.

When you become a member, posts are emailed to you. If you don't want the Episcopal Church content, you can turn off those posts. Just sign in with your email address, click on "Account" in the top right hand corner of the screen, and use the toggle button to switch off the Episcopal Church content.

And that's it! The exhaustive, possibly exhausting explanation of why this site exists and how it works. It will stay a Featured Post for the foreseeable future... until something changes.

Thank you for reading and even more, thank you for being a companion on the journey.

Add your comments below... is there something specific you'd like me to address?

How can this blog serve you?