Recent Posts

It’s a Homerun… Or is it?
Sometimes it can be a fine line between a home run and a dramatic out in baseball. At a recent Seattle Mariners game, one of rival San Diego Padres hitters sent a long fly ball over the center field fence. Just as the ball was leaving the park, star outfielder Julio Rodriguez leapt into the air, stretching his glove high over the fence – and then – came down again in apparent defeat. The Padres hitter broke out into a home run trot around the bases. Rodriguez trudged several steps away from the fence, then grinned and slowly revealed to nearby fans that there was in fact a ball nestled in his mitt. The Sporting News ran the following headline...

GOOOOOALS!
The most exuberant call in all of sports originated with Andrés Cantor, an Argentine-American sportscaster who is well known throughout the Americas for his color commentary during association football (soccer) matches. His ability to stretch out the single word “goal” into a 30-second long celebration of a kick well-scored borders on the miraculous.

NFL Kickoff is here at ECRC!
(As long as NFL = Noteworthy, Faithful Leaders)
Millions of Americans have been eagerly awaiting this weekend’s kickoff to the NFL Season (National Football League). The victory of my childhood favorite Detroit Lions over the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs brought a smile to my face. Here in Chicago, there is hope that this very Sunday our own Bears could compete with the cheese-swilling Green Bay Packers.
Sabbatical Update
Hi Elmhurst CRC family and friends, and greetings to you from Sabbatical time. While I’ve been away, I’ve had a lot of life breathed back into me through travel, study, and rest. These experiences have inspired all sorts of creative ideas within me, many of them musical in nature...

When Easter Gets Personal
Easter is a big day. Full of color, great music, and celebration. It’s legitimately the highlight of the year for me, just as Jesus’ resurrection is the highlight of our faith. As amazing as Easter Sunday can be, the Monday after Easter always feels strange and awkward. Unlike Christmas, where most of the population has time to linger and lean into an extended holiday period, the day after Easter snaps us back into business as usual.
On one level, this bothers me: shouldn’t Easter change everything?! On the other hand: