The Roofless Church

Category: Actualization

  • A Box as Big as the Universe

    A Box as Big as the Universe

    My uncle, Vernon Kitabu Turner, can’t be put in a box. And it is time that I thank God for him. He just loves God and has ceaselessly sought to understand the Spirit that he has witnessed as active his entire life by any means necessary. When I was younger, people told me that I…

  • The New Rule of L.A.W. – Love Always Wins

    The New Rule of L.A.W. – Love Always Wins

    For months, I have been trying to make sense of this awareness in my soul that there was something calling me forward no matter how painful 2020 has been. However, I couldn’t figure out how to articulate it until I was listening to a Matisyahu song called One Day. Then it hit me that I…

  • The Many Realms of Knowledge

    The Many Realms of Knowledge

    There’s a reason why people say knowledge is power. We have convinced ourselves that the one who knows has an advantage over those who do not know. And in many instance, this can prove accurate. But there are different realms of knowledge and with them we find the ability to access different levels of wisdom.…

  • The Story You Refuse to Hear May Be Your Own

    In a recent sermon called, The Search for the present Christ, I challenged my community to reflect on the image of Afro-Cuban artist, Harmonia Rosale’s work, I Exist, which features a black woman on the Cross. I asked them to do this not because I was trying to be provocative in the shock value sense,…

  • The Comfort Paradox

    The Comfort Paradox

    The first time I heard the saying, “Afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted”, it was in seminary. I heard it from a cohort leader who said it in a way that led me to believe that she made it up. She never said she made it up. But, that was her response, when I…

  • Mastering Your Greatest Weakness

    Mastering Your Greatest Weakness

    “Your greatest weakness is your strength overdone.” — Some Wise Person Whose Name I can’t remember. In a recent post, I reflected a little on being an 8 on the Enneagram. In it I mentioned briefly about 8s despising weakness in themselves and others. What I didn’t get into was examples of that in my…

  • How 8 Thou Art (Reflections on My Enneagram#)

    How 8 Thou Art (Reflections on My Enneagram#)

    For about 6 years now, I have known that I am a type 8 on the Enneagram, what is often referred to as the Challenger/Protector. Even before I had a name and a number to describe some aspects of how I show up in the world, I was aware of many of the dimensions of…

  • Powerful Beyond Measure Part 3

    Powerful Beyond Measure Part 3

    It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. – Marianne Williamson I’m just going to come out and say it so I can get over it. I’ve got cowardice coursing through me. I am afraid of my light just as Marianne said. I don’t want it to be this way. I want…

  • Transforming Purpose

    Transforming Purpose

    Years ago a friend told me that he was sad because he didn’t know his life’s purpose. For some reason, I had never thought about that concept before. And so, because I didn’t know how to take what he was saying seriously, I insensitively reacted with laughter. This upset him, which only made me laugh…

  • Communicating to Death (or some better title)

    Communicating to Death (or some better title)

    “Urkel is dead and I can’t breathe.” Those were the words Oprah spoke to the interviewer when they asked her about one of the most recent casualties of a senseless shooting. I couldn’t breathe either. How could Urkel be gone? He held the hopes of so many of us. He had achieved the dream and…