Today was the big farewell for Rev. Jeff Barrow, the senior pastor at Holy Communion for the past 18 years, and as I look back on the day, I am most struck by the difference between the morning church services and the afternoon banquet and program. The morning was pretty much spent crying our collective
For some people living on the edge means mountain climbing, deep sea diving, or getting a tattoo. For me, nothing is quite as exciting as when I pack a single evening with a little too much to do, where things are timed just so and one miscalculation or mishap could mean disaster. Not that I
Thanks to some photos posted on Facebook (one of which I blogged about on January 24th) I have found myself reliving the Nordic Choir tour of 1980 - my sophomore year. But what really got me sailing down memory lane was a treasure trove of photos sent to me from a classmate and fellow choir
Serious deceit was afoot this past Sunday morning at Holy Communion - but I assure you that it was for the best of causes. This coming Sunday is the farewell of Pastor Jeff Barrow, who has been senior pastor at Holy Communion for the past 18 years, and it’s already abundantly clear that the tears
As I climbed into the shower this morning, I realized that what I was thinking about at that moment was the same thing I thought about as I fell asleep the night before. . . and the night before that. . . and the night before that. . . I realized that I for the
It is amazing how this one single photograph could bring alive a host of memories that I thought had completely slipped from my grasp. This picture was taken back in January of 1980 - thirty years ago - during the winter tour of Luther’s world famous Nordic Choir. I was a scrawny little sophomore who
When it comes to Christmas gifts for my wife, I am much better at quantity than quality. That’s not to say that I’ve ever given her socks or mechanical pencils for Christmas, but most of the time I find myself falling back on predictable, entirely safe choices like sweaters - but as if to compensate
The world got a whole lot more interesting on January 18th, 1965. That’s the day that my sister Randi Kirsten Berg was born. I can still remember the day when mom and dad brought her home from the hospital- wearing a bright red outfit - and she has been making a big splash in our
Isn’t this an interesting picture? This is our older golden retriever, Ellie, steadfastly refusing to come in from the cold. I took this last night, during our church choir party . We decided that we had to keep the dogs sequestered in the laundry room for fear that their exuberant greeting might lead to more
Over the last few days, I - like you - have found my thoughts returning again and again to the suffering people of Haiti. . . and I have been gratified to see so much of the attention of the world focused there. But it certainly was dispiriting the morning after the earthquake to see
