Blog
i did not come with lofty words
For all who are daring and preparing to speak to their communities in the next few days about the mysteries of cross and resurrection… you’re not alone… maybe you can identify with these words…
read morea big year
2016 is shaping up to be a big year for SmallTall Ministries.
I’ll be teaching in three countries in the next few weeks… Today we did the final tweaks to the audio master of the new CD that will be coming out very soon…I have been named an instructor in the new Anabaptist Learning Workshop, and a Teaching Associate with the AMBS Church Leadership Center…
read morereading isaiah
I wasn’t here
when the news came
of bombs and shots and
concert-goers on the blood-red floor.
Where was I?
In a cabin
in the woods
with grade 12 students
imagining the future
dreaming of the future
preparing for the future.
a messy Bible
I had an “aha” moment when reading this article, regarding why I seem to relate to the Bible differently than so many people that I know. I can honestly not remember a time when I thought (or “was led to believe,” as the article says) that the Bible is “neat,...
read moreon reverence, silliness, worship, creativity and structure
Here’s an nice article that appeared this summer about a workshop I did at Camp Kintail last May. I feel like the writer captured well the dynamic of that day, and how my ministry functions… Click here to have a...
read morelots of writing – just not here
For anyone keeping score at home, you may have noticed that it’s been a long time since I’ve written anything in this space. Oddly enough, this year I have probably written as much or more than in any other year of my life – just not here. My studies...
read moreblowing my cover
Just over a year ago I had a conversation that changed my life. I was going into the 11th year of my music ministry and struggling with some dynamics in my work that I was having a hard time naming. A new friend who had asked and listened carefully...
read more“other boats were with him…”
I am now back home after attending two very good, very different events. One was the Wild Goose Festival in North Carolina, and the other was the Mennonite Church Canada Assembly in Winnipeg, Manitoba. At the Assembly I was especially moved by Betty Pries’ presentation on Saturday morning, and...
read morei wish you could meet…
Maybe it’s the way I’m “wired,” but for me one of the joys of going on tour is being welcomed into people’s homes and having many, many conversations across dinner tables (and living rooms, and gardens, and swing sets, and hiking trails, and cars). In the past decade of regular touring,...
read moretake off your shoes
My recent spring tour began with a “performance” where I wasn’t even there! I was asked to contribute a short talk to the Mennonite Church Eastern Canada’s “Annual Church Gathering”… but that was the first weekend of my tour, and I was going to be rolling through the US...
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