Community Ministry
While in my first year of seminary, I was blessed to have been able to work at the LGBTQA+ Center of Orange County (The Center OC). Initially, I was concerned that acting as basically a receptionist would not be "real ministry." Boy, was I mistaken! I became an advocate for:
- persons needing mental health assistance, booking them appointments and dealing with their initial inquiries (sometimes resulting in spiritual care)
- Veterans previously denied their pension/benefits due to Dishonorable Discharge under "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (who, thanks to the Obama Administration's rescinding were able to get what they earned with their service)
- Transgender individuals looking for health care, therapy or community
- Persons who recently lost a partner or other loved one, who needed grief counseling (which resulted in a lot of spiritual care)
- Sex workers, who because of their work, felt stigmatized but sometimes needed assistance (distribution of condoms, etc.)
- Assisting persons needing HIV and STI testing, acting as an advocate between them and the testing provider (STI tests were conducted offsite).
Social Justice
This is my passion with Social Justice: LGBTQIA+ Advocacy. I have several friends, colleagues and family members that identify as part of this community, and I feel it is important that we offer a welcoming, nurturing and supportive environment for these folx. Their suicide and depression rates are astronomical (especially among transgender adults and teens), and if we are to "...affirm the inherent worth and dignity of every person..." then we must consider this imperative. I am also accutely aware of my privilege as a cisgendered, temporarily-abled white man. I am committed to using this privilege to work to dismantle white supremacy culture. I was raised in a working class family and know the deep divide that exist between classes, which is made even harder if you are a person of color.
Clinical Pastoral Education
I worked under the direction of Rev. Fred Smoot at Hoag Prebyterian Hospital in Newport Beach, CA. I was specifically assigned to work at the satellite campus in Irvine. This was a small, acute-care hospital with approximately 150 beds. Because of the area, patients here came from a variety of class and financial backgrounds. As a Unitarian Universalist Chaplain Intern, I was often called to care for the patients and their families who were not Evangelical Christian or Catholic (both of which had chaplains of that designation). The Irvine location had five floors, an Critical Care Unit, Emergency Department, and the Orthopedic Institute. On a given day I could be checking up on a patient who had a hip replacement, to a patient who is detoxing, to another patient who might be terminal.
Student and Intern Ministry
My teaching pastor for my community and student ministry years was the Rev. Rick Hoyt-McDaniels. As a part-time student minister working under him at First Unitarian Universalist Church in Los Angeles, I learned a lot about how to craft worship, how to minister to variety of cultural backgrounds (First Church is located in the Koreatown area of Los Angeles, now largely populated by persons of Latinx heritage), community service work (I assisted with their grocery distrabution program), and helped kickstart their children's programing by helping to reintroduce a "Time For All Ages" and assisting our childcare provider with activities from Tapestry of Faith (we had hoped to grow this into a full Religious Education program). Here I also taught an adult religious exploration class on American Paganism, using the work of Margot Adler (a UU Pagan) entitled "Drawing Down the Moon" as our focal text. Unfortunately, I was unable to continue my internship there as planned due to Rev. Hoyt-MdDaniels' decision to resign from the church.
I adapted quickly and found a new home at Tapestry: A Unitarian Universalist Congregation initially in Mission Viejo, now temporarily Laguna Woods. The demographic at this church is largely middle class, which was a marked change from First Church. The Rev. Kent Doss has been a wonderful friend and mentor to work with, and as his intern I have had more pulpit opportunities, assisted with pastoral care duties, and have witnessed the progress of this community's purchase of their first building. Whereas at First Church the minister crafted the majority of the service, at Tapestry there is a stronger Shared Ministry, so crafting workship is a much more collaborative process. Here I have also established a Pastoral Care Team, which is a group of folks who went through a training class with me on the basics of compassionate communication and pastoral care. I am also working with the Welcome Committee (greeters and ushers) in training them on what it means to be a truly welcoming congregation, how to welcome guests, and how to avoid confrontation, conflict and microagressions.
Worship and Religious Education should go hand in hand. While RE classes are important, it is also important that children are included in their church community. I prefer to have a Full-Faith approach to church and community: religious education should not just happen at church!
Sample Sermons:
War is not easy, and it takes a toll on our soldiers' spirits. Do the ideas of Beloved Community extend to veterans, past and present?
"Denial is not a River in Egypt"
Nothing in nature is still or static. Like the currents of a river, change happens whether or not we want it to.
By avoiding currents, or worse, damming our river, could we be interrupting our own metamorphosis? Our own transformation?
Like dropping a stone in a river, the results can have deep ripples in our lives.
"Border Crossing: Offering Hope in the Form of Kindness"
Sometimes during the darkest moments of our lives, a simple act of kindness can bring us much needed light.
Hope is crucial with disconnect is strong, so it is important to remind ourselves to offer kindness when we can.
Rites of Passage and Weddings
I love crafting worship! I have performed many wedddings, several funerals, and a few child dedication services. I am a firm believer when it comes to rites of passage and weddings those should be created with the persons being honored in mind. I am a firm believer in Shared Ministry, and will endeavor to craft the perfect service for your occasion!
Sample Wedding Service:
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Me officiating the Flower Ceremony, which we honored the prophetic people of our lives, at First Church.