A creative collaboration between Trinity United Methodist Church and Sellwood Faith Community

This week after morning worship we had a BBQ and party in celebration of our newest community member, who is just 3 months old! It was so good to eat together, visit with one another, make art for her room together, and try to guess who's baby picture was who!  It has...

July 1st is New Year in the United Methodist Church. It's common for pastors to post about the new church they are beginning or to remark on the years served in the current place. July 1, 2022 marks the beginning of year 10 on Portland! We moved to the house on Tacoma...

This week our Oregon-Idaho area United Methodist leaders from all churches and ministries met together. Each year we work through the business of the church, including things like approving minimum salary for pastors, voting to close churches, approving ministry...

I was struggling on Saturday. Suddenly I found myself with no tech people and no musician for morning worship. I was trying to call through the lists of folks in our parish who could play for morning worship and getting lots of nos. It was Father's Day, Pride, and...

This week I went Strawberry picking, which is one of may favorite Oregony things to do. I haven't gone in years!  And as I was driving home with my couple pounds of strawberries what I realized is I haven't gone strawberry picking for 2 reasons. One is that growing up...

I sometimes still cannot believe that I serve a reconciling congregation. 22 years ago, when I was in seminary, I was part of a group called Sacred Worth that was about claiming the sacred worth of LGBTQ+ persons in the church. It seemed like we would never live in a...

Uvalde, Buffalo, Chattanooga, Las Vegas, Florence South Carolina, Charleston, University City, Taft, and more. In Portland this weekend there were 10 shootings with 10 people injured in less than 24 hours. ENOUGH Gun violence is a public health crisis. June 3rd is Gun...

How do you learn? If you don't know something how do you find out the information? If you aren't where you want to be in regards to speaking another language, fostering a deeper faith, or acquiring a skill how do you proceed? In the journey of planting a new church...

Back in those early days of the pandemic we were adapting and adjusting. After 2 years I'm tried of adjusting and adapting. I want routine. I want to know what to expect. I want to be good at my job again. One example of this comes from our morning worship set-up. At...

People seem so angry right now. And I'm not just talking about the news out of the supreme court. The other day I was at the mall to buy some new dress pants. A lady in the parking lot flipped me off as I was driving. I guess she thought I should have stopped for her...