The Roofless Church

Category: Consciousness

  • Love the Players, Hate the Game

    Many years ago, a business consultant, who specialized in military transitions, took an interest in me. She started a conversation with me as I waited for a friend in the Family Support Center of Andrews Air Force Base. Part way through the conversation she jumped in and said, “INTJ or INTP”. Being unfamiliar with the…

  • Singing Down the Road to Redemption

    As the cast stood in the line preparing to enter the sanctuary, I could almost feel myself getting younger and the space getting narrower. Was it getting darker or was it just me?  Where did that spotlight come from?  Why am I so warm? I guess that’s what happens when you time travel and that…

  • And out of the Silence…Marisa Tomei

    “Marisa Tomei! Hallelujah! Marisa Tomei! Thank you Jesus! Marisa Tomei! Now I can eat. Amen.” What you just read was an approximation of my thoughts just before dinner tonight. I am presently on a retreat for new pastors and today is our day of silence. With the exception of a short session for spiritual direction,…

  • Tear Down These Walls For A Change

    Recently, I was listening to Jonathan Odell, author of The Healing, talk about some of his experiences of growing up as a white male in 1950/60’s Mississippi. One of the stories he told that stood out to me the most was when he described an instance when a “well-meaning” older white woman explained to him…

  • The Audience That Isn’t There

    Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.  Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom…

  • God Is Still Seeking

    “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in…

  • Who Does Jesus Belong To?

    John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me.…

  • The Privilege of Fearing God

    Fear and God.  For a long time those two words seemed not to go together for me. After all, in the book of 1 John we are told “God is Love” and despite how we tend to think of hate as love’s opposite, anyone who has ever loved knows that is inaccurate.  Fear is actually…

  • The Burden of Innocence

    As I mentioned in the video, today I was thinking about the burden of innocence that we all share and how Mary, the mother of Jesus, symbolizes that burden. Sometimes I imagine if some of us hurt folk were able to just pour out our hearts and tell the burdensome story of how we lost…

  • Toward Unfiltered Consciousness

    This morning I found myself stuck on The Root.  For those of you who have never heard of it, it is similar to The Huffington Post, but with articles that are more tailored to the interests of a largely African American audience.  Some of the articles that I got mesmerized by were a 4 page article on African…