I was really looking forward to writing this reflection. What I was not expecting is that I had such a difficult time trying to figure out what to include and what to leave out. I am ultimately satisfied with the ‘final product,’ but I did have to leave quite a few things out. One of the major things I wish I would have had time for was talking about how, even after entering seminary, I was running from parish ministry.

My name is Penny Johnson, and I am the Director of Christian Education and the Administration Manager. An odd combination of titles, but as I share my story, you will begin to understand how it happened. “What’s my why?”, and why I’m here is very simple: I believe in the teachings of Jesus, and I want to share those teachings with God’s littlest children. My baptism is one of my earliest church memories. I was eight years old, and in preparation

Why am I a Christian? Our Christian faith is grounded on the principle of love, and we are assured of God’s unconditional love of each of us by the redeeming grace of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. God calls us to live by the laws given to us in the form of the Ten Commandments. If all of us followed these rules, we would avoid the moral problems of the human experience. When Jesus was asked by the lawyer which of the

I am a Christian because there are a lot of ways in which the world - everything from my heart to global power structures - is messed up. There are a lot of ways in which this world is alienated from its true nature, ways in which we are alienated from our true selves. And I am persuaded to believe that the way of Jesus is the best shot we have at being led home. But why? "Why, Mike are you