• Youth Pastors in the News – June 2026

    The murder occurred in 2006. The senior pastor waited 19 years to go to the police. He knew his former employee had killed his wife to cover up ongoing sexual abuse at the church.

    You can read about it here.

    At the time of his arrest I’ll give you one guess where this guy was a working? At a private charter school as a school counselor. Here’s a video of him reading a book on empathy to children.

    Clergy sexual abuse is endemic to churches because they refuse to stop it or put real systems in place to prevent it.

    They systematically protect the abusers reputations as an extension off protecting the churches brand. In this case, the lead pastor protected a man he knew murdered his wife and sexually abused underaged girls for 19 years.

    The former senior pastor is not a hero for going to the police. In my opinion he could be charged as an accessory after the fact because he hid it.

  • Transforming Community Through Faith and Farming

    Transforming Community Through Faith and Farming

    It will never not be weird that you can get a theological education, hired into Christian ministry, and not take a single class in agriculture or spend time on a farm.

    I said that before I was a farmer. And now that I am? I think you need to demand a refund from your seminary because you learned marketing and bad business mantras when you should have been learning how to prepare the soil, plant, cultivate, fertilize, and harvest.

    How in the world can you “shepherd a flock” when you’ve never worked with sheep and goats?

    I might not draw a paycheck from a church but starting a few years back my neighborhood became my congregation and you know what? I think rejecting the Church Industrial Complex and attempting to make my life Good News in the Neighborhood is way more effective than any church I’ve ever been part of. I do more pastorin’ now than ever.

    Want to know what faith looks like? Take a day off during your harvest season. Want to find your purpose and a reason to get out of beet Get some livestock. Want to know what it means make an impact on a family? Grow their dinner.

    Want to know what healthy organisms do? They multiply.

    You won’t learn that at a conference, you’ll learn that in the fields.

  • Suns Up Fatty

    Suns Up Fatty

    A long time ago I read and was heavily influenced by Seth Godin’s book “The Dip.”

    Google AI summarizes it like this:

    “The Dip by Seth Godin is a short business book that argues winners are often the best quitters, teaching readers to distinguish between a “Dip” (a temporary, worthwhile struggle) and a “Cul-de-Sac” (a dead end) to achieve success. The core idea is that every new venture gets hard, and the key to success is having the discipline to quit the wrong things and the persistence to push through the right ones to become the best in your field.

    For me, identifying dips vs. cul-de-sacs is found in the data. “Does the math, math?”

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  • Learning to Love our Wood Stove

    Learning to Love our Wood Stove

    I’ll admit it. I didn’t want to get a wood stove to heat our house.

    I grew up with gas forced heat furnaces. You go to the thermostat, you set a temperature, you buy a new filter every couple of months, that’s heat.

    So when we moved here our house came with minisplits in every room, an ancient gravity based propane furnace, and a big old fireplace.

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  • The Unraveling of College Athletics

    The Unraveling of College Athletics

    College sports fans might be too close to notice it but the world of college athletics seems to be coming apart at the seams.

    (more…)

  • Putting Guardrails on AI

    It’s the lack of guardrails that is concerning.

    I don’t care if AI is giving me better search results or drafting some email content or even helps with customer service chats or meal planning or whatever.

    AI is really cool. It does offer some great advantages. But we’re going to need some guidelines and laws governing what we can and cannot do with it.

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  • Thank You Geneva Center

    Thank You Geneva Center

    Last year my high school closed it’s doors.

    This year the presbytery sold off my childhood summer camp.

    Yesterday was the final celebration of that work, culminating 60 years of welcoming kids from all over northern Indiana for a week of crafts, games, swimming, and hand-churned ice cream.

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  • Lightning, Fire, and Grazing

    Lightning, Fire, and Grazing

    “Feels very fire-y out. Windy, hot, lightning.” 

    Sent that text to Kristen as I made my way out for deliveries yesterday. Driving north on the 49 the big, tall van was getting blown around. 

    A line of thunderstorms ran just west and north of us off and on all day. Some areas got flash flooding while others were spared the floods but speared by lightning. 

    Dozens of spot fires took off in nearby towns like Raymond, Catheys Valley, Hornitos, and further to the north along Highway 120. The grasslands dried out in May and by early September what grass the cattle haven’t eaten is so crisp it breaks when you step on it. 

    It’s really dry right now. Really dangerous. 

    It sounds like the historic town of China Camp, about 50 miles north of us, took heavy damage. 

    Around our immediate area we are rattled, but fine. Later in the day a wind came through with gusts north of 30 MPH. Just a spark and we are cooked. 

    There’s irony in it all. 

    While the country is feeling the effects of the highest beef prices ever, fires leave cattle running for their lives. 

    We need more cattle, sheep, and goats grazing in the foothills to help mitigate the impact of a more volitile, changing climate. Not just in the grassier areas— everywhere. 

    But as herds head to the market the cattle families are asking themselves… do we cash out and retire? Or do we reinvest and buy the most expensive calves in history? It’s a fair question because by the time these replacements are ready the market might dip so much they’d lose money. 

    Imagine yourself as a local cattle ranching family. They’ve never taken money out of their ranch, just reinvested earnings to keep growing the herd and pay their bills. But with high prices and kids getting ready for college? It’s tempting to cash out, lock in the future, and wait for the dip. You’re torn by this because you want to serve the community you love, as well. But…

    When things are as uncertain as they are right now? Certainty is awful tempting.

    Early yesterday morning, before all of this happened, I sent an email to our Sierra National Forest team asking about our own grazing project. Why? Because winter is looming and I need to know: Am I buying to increase my herd, selling to reduce, or just breeding? 

    We’ve been in a holding pattern for months but I am at the point where it’s critical to have an answer. 

    I’m under no delusion, one day the dry lightning is coming for us, too. 

    We’d like our goats to be part of preventing a disaster but the land next to us doesn’t belong to us… so we are stuck waiting for permission. 

    Will it come in time? I have no idea. 

    Fingers crossed today is cooler, less windy, and those fleets of firefighters and bulldozers are able to contain that spectacle of fires. And fingers crossed I get a call from North Fork with the go ahead.

  • Why the County Fair Matters

    Why the County Fair Matters

    In sociological terms a “public” is a place where a local society meets or hangs out. It’s where you catch up with friends, meet new people, relax, conduct business, develop friendships, or simply be.

    In a sense these are usually “public spaces” but it doesn’t have to be publicly-owned spot. Back in the late 80s a “public” in the small town I grew around in Indiana might be the parking lot of a McDonald’s along McKinley or the USA Roller Rink or in the early 90s it would be cruising the mall, slow walking a Saturday night in hopes you might get invited to a party or be there when the fight happens, sipping on an Orange Julius or sneaking a peak into Victorias Secret.

    Social media has brought about the erosion of publics. People don’t hang out in person quite like they used to because apps have taken the local public from the coffee shop to your pocket. But, as we’ve learned, a digital public can be dangerous… they can accidentally turn into echo chambers. But we all know enatelt that there’s nothing quite like sitting around and chewing the fat with people in real life.

    In a small town like Mariposa the county fair is one of our main publics. It’s 4 days of pageantry, intrigue, and drama by which the social calendar of our 18,000 residents revolve. Whereas, in the Upper Midwest kids might get the opening day of deer season off from school, here you get the opening day of the fair off and if you don’t make it to school on Thursday the attendance office doesn’t seem to notice.

    Everyone knows Saturday night is the derby and Sunday is the livestock auction right before the rodeo. Even if you don’t go to any of it you know the whole world around here revolves around these 4 days.

    For kids, it’s “what are you showing this year?” Not “are you going to the fair?” It might only be 150 out of all the kids in the county but it sure feels like everyone.

    If you’re a city or suburban dweller you might not even know things like 4-H or FFA still exist. But around here? They are the lifeblood that makes the county fair a public. These programs have more members than all the churches combined. Our town loves youth sports but even the sports teams know better than to mess with the fair.

    I’m enjoying the fair. It’s the break I need at the end of a long, hot summer. It’s exhausting. But it also fills my tank. One full day left for me then back to harvesting on Monday for the week to come.

    Fair is important. And we like participating in our small ways.

    Jackson did much better this year than last. He’ll always be remembered in the rabbit group as the kid who showed his rabbit covered in blood because it ripped a toe nail out on the way into the ring.

    But I hope the core memory he’ll have from this week is the improvement he made showing his goat. He was first out last year in both market and showmanship, a source of a year’s frustration and embarrassment as his friends saw him place last. This year he moved up a division and finished 4th out of 15 in showmanship and 3rd in his group for market goats with the goat we bred.

    Tomorrow all attention will shift to the payoff, selling his goat to the highest bidder at the annual auction. It’s emotional for me to see the community rally and spend upwards of $500,000 on 160 fair project animals. And it’s especially emotional for me to see someone graciously overpay for a $300 goat to encourage my child’s interest in agriculture.

    Zooming out the lens, this is why it’s so important to invest in your communities public. I don’t know what it is where you live. But it’s there for you to find. And your life will be enriched when you join in.

    In Romeo it was Halloween and the Peach Festival. In Rolando it was the street fair and (RIP) the Boo Parade. Here? It’s the fair.

    Truly, I don’t think anyone who lives here would have it any other way. Even if they avoid going.

    Though, everyone should go to the derby once in their lives.

  • Free Puppies at Pioneer Market

    Free Puppies at Pioneer Market

    An older lady cut a long line at Pioneer saying “I’m a local, I can’t wait.” I did what any reasonable Mariposa man would do. I put one of those free parking lot puppies in her back seat. Good thing you’re local!