by Christian Coon | Aug 31, 2019 | BLOG, Grief, Loss, Parenting
I’m not exactly sure where the phrase “practice what you preach” came from (the internet tells me maybe Matthew 23:3 or maybe “The Merchant of Venice” or maybe a translation of a phrase from the philosopher Seneca), but certainly the...
by Christian Coon | Aug 14, 2019 | BLOG, Creation, Formation
“But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou art our potter; we are all the work of thy hand.” (Isaiah 64:8, KJV) We returned a few days ago from our annual summer trip to Pentwater, Michigan, which is always an idyllic few days spent...
by Christian Coon | Jul 25, 2019 | BLOG, Community, Imagination, Ministry
Some of you know that I’ve shifted my job responsibilities at Urban Village and am now the Pastor of Emerging Ministries. One of my main tasks is to explore creative ways UVC might connect to the areas our sites are located. My biggest project in this new job is...
by Christian Coon | Jul 15, 2019 | BLOG, Faith
There was one magic week this summer where no one in our family had a conflict so before my daughter heads off to college this fall, we decided to take a family vacation to a somewhat exotic location. After doing some exhaustive research (that is, Googling “fun...
by Christian Coon | Jun 30, 2019 | BLOG, Prayer
My son has gotten into indoor rock climbing in recent months so about once a week, my wife or I take him to a climbing gym on the north side of the city where he can scale to his heart’s content. I usually just stick around and go to a nearby coffee place and...
by Christian Coon | Jun 13, 2019 | BLOG, Communion, Inclusion
I’ve been in the ministry for more than 21 years, which means my children (ages 18 and 14) have only known life as PKs, pastor’s/preacher’s kids. Their experience is fairly atypical from most PKs, I think, especially since their main memories have...
by Christian Coon | May 22, 2019 | BLOG, Service
My wife and I visited Charleston, SC, a couple weeks ago to celebrate our silver anniversary. I had never been to Charleston, but I did something I rarely do. Or, more accurately, I didn’t do something I usually do. I didn’t exhaustively research a travel...
by Christian Coon | Apr 30, 2019
by Christian Coon | Apr 16, 2019 | BLOG
As we draw closer to Easter, I still can’t get Ash Wednesday out of my head. Well, not Ash Wednesday per se, but a comment that someone made to me as we were finishing up our annual offering ashes to passersby on the street. For the ninth year, I stood on the south...
by Christian Coon | Apr 15, 2019
My guest this week is Jeremy Smith, United Methodist pastor and creator of the blog, Hacking Christianity. Jeremy is the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Seattle, but his wider audience knows him as the prolific writer of blog posts on Hacking Christianity,...
