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Getting Out There the Best we Can
Last weekend a few of us got out there. It was Moorestown Day, a festival on Main Street in Moorestown, and we thought it to be a great opportunity to tell people about Circle of Hope. It was a beautiful day and rain only threatened without delivering. Maybe housands of people showed up and we…
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Why Curb Appeal and Everything Else Matters
So we bought a building. I think it was 2011. Now it matters. It matters because it is ours, and we matter because we are God’s. And we are God’s not in a generic sense–because we were created by God like everyone else–but because we are God’s chosen people being built like living stones into…
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What is the meaning of life and what if there is an answer other than 42?
In Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy the super computer, Deep Thought, takes 7.5 million years to find the answer to life, the universe and everything, and the answer is 42. Those who receive the answer aren’t pleased. “Forty-two!” yelled Loonquawl. “Is that all you’ve got to show for seven and a half…
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Why not the Whole Delaware Watershed?
We live in the megalopolis- the swath of concrete dominated land that stretches from Washington DC all the way up to Boston. In my neck of this urban and suburban mass of human concentration, the boundaries slip and slide like hikers boots on wet, mossy rocks. One minute you’re in Haddon Township, the next minute…
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Let’s actually DO something
When my new cell started my apprentice, Pat, was adamant that our cell be about actually doing stuff and not just talking about stuff. Pat is like my canary in the coal mine for toxic church fumes. He’s seen it all and still has to intentionally work to let his instinctual defenses down to move…
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Relating with Jesus is Contagious
One of the most exciting things I did this week was create this map of our cells in South Jersey. I circled the area we want to impact in a brave flourish of hope and probably a bit of foolishness. There are 571,192 people living in the towns inside my circle. I’m praying for every…
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Circle of Hope Summer Tour: South Jersey Style 2015
Circle of Hope is going to show up where South Jersey gathers. There are people around who want to know what we are doing and they even want to do it, but they don’t know about us. So we need to get out there and be noticed. The first thing I know to do to…
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Hope Bigger Than Just Hype
I believe that a coffin sized rectangle of reclaimed lumber in the front yard of Circle of Hope’s repurposed firehouse in Pennsauken will change the world. We put some fresh soil in it and we’re going to grow some food then offer the produce free to passersby. This will destroy the forces of evil. Sounds…
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To serve or not to serve?
To quote the bard (not that one, Dylan), “You may be rich or poor, you may be blind or lame, You may be living in another country under another name. But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes” If we listen to Bob the question in the title of this blog may be irrelevant. Bob just wants…
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Energy Teleportation and New Life in Christ
A few months ago scientists were able to transfer information stored in a photon across a distance of 25 kilometers. I can’t totally understand what the science communicators are trying to tell me despite some significant head scratching. Here’s a link to one of the articles I read [link]. Just the idea that information is regularly…
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Dialogue keeps us connected and protects our gravity
This weekend I went to the meeting of the Atlantic Conference of the Brethren in Christ (the denomination of which Circle of Hope is a part) and I was reminded of how strange and beautiful the people called Circle of Hope really are. I live in a trust system and I regularly have dialogue that…
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Waking Up- Using Lent as a Season of Examination
I find there is great comfort in specificity. So much of what pulls my heart around is more a general sense of something, a nagging disease with some unidentified something, a cloudy shadow of something. But what is it?! Why do I find myself sighing sometimes, or fearing sometimes, or discovering new unhappiness sometimes. It’s…
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A New Cell is Born
Out of nowhere, we were sharing our struggles and gathering around Jesus! A couple of weeks ago I met up with my friend Pat and convinced him we should have a cell in his house. Last night we met for the first time–seven of us in his comfy living room, eating and not eating cookies…
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Your spiritual nerve endings may be shot
At a couple different stages in childhood, our brain pruned neurons that were underused. It was creating clearer pathways, concentrating energy, codifying regular patterns. It’s called synaptic pruning (How crazy wonderful is the human brain?! I’m imagining a lumpy gardener with tiny shears.) What’s done is done. We can’t grow those neurons back. New pathways…
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Yes and yes and yes: Partners old and new are to be found
I asked God, “Does anyone want to do this in South Jersey?” I breathed deep and felt the room beyond my closed eyelids expand with my diaphragm. The people seated in a circle with me withdrew. In my mind’s eye, the distance grew between me and Kim who sat cross legged on the couch across…
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A Week of Being Jesus
In Circle of Hope we say Jesus is best revealed incarnationally- Here’s a little newspaper of how that worked out for me this past week (spoiler- it did!) Monday Afternoon– When the Compassion Core Team heard about the #ReclaimMLK march happening in Philadelphia they mobilized 200 people from Circle of Hope to show up and…
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It’s Dr. King’s Birthday- Man, do I wish they hadn’t murdered him
My old pal, John Francis, got it so right when he wrote this song “Kill the Dreamer” back in 2007. “Oh, say can you see things are not as they seem from sea to shining sea Dr. King, Dr. King I know you’re listening. they can kill the dreamer but they cannot kill the dream there was…
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Resolving not to suck sucks
I love New Years resolutions. Any opportunity to change is my favorite, because my whole life is about transformation. Walking the narrow way that Jesus recommends to us requires some healthy self evaluation on a regular basis. I spent some time in my twenties “just trying to do better,” constantly plagued by a dissatisfaction I…
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Welcome, Jesus, to the world and South Jersey
We really got ourselves into a mess recently at Circle of Hope. God afflicted us with this surprising idea to shift our church planting staff around. Nate Hulfish is moving into an Adminstrator/Communicator role for the whole church and I am moving into the role of Pastor of Marlton and Crescent. I never would have…
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God Chooses You
Here’s a little window into my thought process as I re-hashed some old biblical interpretation battles from seminary: I was reading Ephesians the other day and I had to deal with this word “predestination” again. In Ephesians 1:3-6 Paul writes Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed…
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Today, if you hear his voice 