When people want to help, I always look for unintended consequences. In 2014 a documentary was produced called, Poverty, Inc.. It looked at relief efforts in the developing world and found that many good people with good intentions wind up hurting those they intend to help. When this crisis really ...Read More...

When people want to help, I always look for unintended consequences. In 2014 a documentary was produced called, Poverty, Inc.. It looked at relief efforts in the developing world and found that many good people with good intentions wind up hurting those they intend to help. When this crisis really ...Read More...

A week ago, Mt. Calvary decided to cancel face-to-face worship services for a few weeks. At the time, it may have seemed premature or alarmist. Today, I think the only Church services in Milwaukee were online. The speed at which all of this is happening is really astounding. This past week has been ...Read More...

This is now the fourth day of my disrupted life. Sunday went along pretty much as planned. With schools closing and our congregation’s decision to suspend in-person worship services, Monday was a new day. I’m still getting used to this. What I am not getting used to is how we are so very divided ...Read More...

Beloved in the Lord,   In a desire to keep all in worship safe, our Mission and Ministry Council (MMC) decided today to cancel in-person worship services for the next two weeks. To be specific, there will be no midweek Lenten services on Wednesdays, March 18 and 25; and no Sunday services March ...Read More...

Dear Friends, Recently, I was asked to write a BLOG post for the Center for U.S. Missions. You can visit their web site here: http://www.centerforusmissions.com Here is the article I wrote for C4USM             I have been Pastor of my current congregation for four years. From the day I accepted ...Read More...

During the Easter season our first reading is from the book of Acts. It provides us with a kind of a time warp to life after the Ascension. This coming Sunday our first reading is Acts 2:42-47. I invite you to drill down into these five verses and consider your life in Christ and our life together as ...Read More...

Starting on Palm Sunday (April 9, 2017), Mount Calvary will be going live on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/mtcalvaryMKE/) and on this web site (https://mtcalvary-mke.org/custpage.cfm/frm/152029/sec_id/152029). As part of this new presence on the Web, I will be posting some things here to think ...Read More...

I recently completed an Every Member Visit with 34 families of our congregation. The purpose of these visits was to discern our future direction as well as our current capacity. I had a set of questions that guided our discussion and helped me to learn some specific things about this Church. It was ...Read More...

I like to read. Almost everything I read is non-fiction related to my interests in the Church, theology, education, leadership, and culture. I know I'm weird, and for many people that kind of reading wouldn't be recreation, it would be torture. That being said, I want to tell you a little bit about ...Read More...

When I was in grade school, I had a subject called "Arithmetic." I found spelling the word, "Arithmetic," harder than working the problems. I learned to spell "Arithmetic" after someone taught me a silly sentence: "A rat in the house may eat the ice cream." To this day, I can only spell "arithmetic" ...Read More...

If you have ever watched a play from back stage, you know that things look very different from a different perspective. A play, after all, is produced so that it will be viewed from the audience's point of view not from back stage. Most of us recognize how important what happens behind the scenes ...Read More...

A couple of weeks ago I had a reminder of why I love being a Pastor at Mount Calvary Lutheran Church. It was a really, really good day; it was a one-of-a-kind day. If anyone who reads this has ever had a day like this, please respond because I think more people need to hear about why being a Pastor ...Read More...

A few of you are old enough to remember "The Four Spiritual Laws" from Campus Crusade for Christ. Reading this tract from a Lutheran point of view presents a few problems. There are also some worthwhile points in these pages. Below this article, you should see an illustration I first saw in "The ...Read More...

Yesterday my heart was full. You my ask, "full of what?" Good question a little background information is in order. I have two sons. The oldest is 27 and living on his own in Florida; the youngest is 14 and about to begin High School here in Milwaukee. My oldest son is an artist; he received his ...Read More...

Today kids and teachers have off from school, banks and government offices are closed, and there is no mail. We are remembering the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. today. There is so much to remember about Dr. King and he is an ongoing source of inspiration for people around the world. ...Read More...

I have been a part of a lot of teams in my life. When I was younger, I participated in sports and I saw how a good team could make individuals better. As an adult, I coached sports teams and found that team "chemistry" had more to do with success than the individual skill levels of the players. Today, ...Read More...

The History Channel recently produced an info graphic: "New Year's by the Numbers." Among the interesting facts I noticed was that 45% of Americans make New Year's resolutions. The most popular resolutions are losing weight, getting organized, spending less and saving more, staying fit and healthy, ...Read More...

That date requires no explanation. I'm sure that almost every reader remembers where he or she was on the morning of September 11, 2001. The events of that date in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania live in our national consciousness. The world changed on 9/11 and most of us sensed the dramatic ...Read More...

During the 1993-94 season I coached basketball at Faith Lutheran School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Our team won the state Lutheran tournament in Florida and received a bid to play in the Lutheran National Tournament in Valparaiso, Indiana. That season was a glorious ride and I will never forget those ...Read More...