Author: LAMPomrenke

Sometimes during MN winters, cancelling worship is the right thing to do. Here's the sermon I would have preached, if it hadn't have been for the snowstorm.

God of love and promise, we bring our full selves and many emotions to this moment in the life of this congregation. As we gather for the annual meeting, we pray for honesty and hope in equal measure, that we might acknowledge to one another how our hearts are responding to a long-time pastor's leaving,… Continue reading A Prayer for the Annual Meeting in an Interim

I walked into a room covered in rose petals, with bouquets of roses in containers placed all around the room. My love - whom I had been dating for about 2 months but already knew I would marry - had invited me to the Medicine Ball, a fancy affair for students at his medical school… Continue reading Grand Gestures and Everyday Care

For the last month, I have been editing my book. I've added about one and a half chapters of new material to what I had, but the majority of the work to get my manuscript ready for its deadline has been re-working what I wrote last spring. This work has revealed much about my initial… Continue reading Editing

On October 1st (our youngest daughter's birthday) I received a book contract for my first book! Here are some details: Working Title Embodied: Clergy Women and the Solidarity of a Mothering God Book Summary Someone always needs you, and their faith - in God, themselves and the family of God - seems built on your… Continue reading My Book Has a Publisher!

(A sermon on Luke 16:1-13) Finally, he did the right thing. For the wrong reason, but Jesus doesn't seem to care about that. In this parable, the master or “lord” commends his dishonest manager because he acts shrewdly. And we scratch our heads, because… ummmm… I thought honesty was a virtue? Well, what if the… Continue reading A Turning Point

A local colleague who has noticed my writing asked me to put together a 45-minute class for parents at the church where she was an interim pastor, to start off the Sunday School year. In preparing a take-home sheet for them, I realized that I have a bibiliography almost entirely of my own work. Here… Continue reading A Bibliography: The Solidarity of a God Who Also Parents

This past month, we used gift certificates for (1) a cabin that sleeps 11-13 (2) a complete outfitting package for wilderness canoeing and camping and (3) an upscale oyster bar and French restaurant. Because they were about to expire. This odd collection of experiences can all be traced back to silent auctions during previous fall… Continue reading The Silent Auction Made Us Do It

Escapism gets a bad rap. Of course it is not healthy to deny reality indefinitely, or neglect what needs to be done all the time in favor of escaping into fantasies, but let me tell you, some escape can be a very, very good thing. Especially in the barrage of vitriole that is our current… Continue reading Escapism at its Best

Driving an all-electric car cross-country takes more planning than I am used to, a side effect of this choice we made to consciously reduce our carbon footprint and reliance on fossil fuels. The question is, it is a positive or negative effect? Yep, it takes longer. Road trips were one thing we considered when looking… Continue reading Electric Road Trip