Jose Humphreys

Also see: Open Source Preaching Pt. 1
I had a sermon prepared for our church’s weekly gathering at the National Black Theater.  I also had a question prepared at the beginning of this sermon.  In anticipation of preaching about The Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father” in particular, I began the sermon by asking our community, “When we [...]

In a world of Pentium processing and wireless access it’s nice to have “quick and dirty” learning at my finger tips.  I gloss and glean what others have already processed and then try to make it my own.  So every day I reap the benefits of an open source society.
My approach to learning  is recently [...]

I’ve just returned from a two-day retreat at a friend’s home in Middleton, NY. I try to do this at least once a year as a way of recalibrating and recharging. It went well for me. The hospitality was awesome. I feel as if things are more manageable in life now. [...]

Church planting has some intense moments of  loneliness.  This is what I’m hearing from both seasoned planters and “rookies” alike.  I’ve experienced it  for myself as someone who is a new church planter and pastor here in East Harlem.  I’m finding more and more, loneliness is not so much about whether people around, but the [...]

Dialogues with Silence is a book of prayers and drawings by Thomas Merton. I read the prayer below after dealing with some crankiness and disorientation this morning and it helped to settle me.
The way You have laid open before me is an easy way, compared with the hard way of my own will [...]

I spoke last Sunday on God’s song of goodness from Psalm 23. The Message version reads “Surely your beauty and love follow me.” Other versions read “goodness and mercy” instead of beauty and love. Irregardless, I love the statement. We often think that we need to chase after good things, [...]

This is an article “On Faith” by Gabriel Salguero a friend and pastor here in Manhattan.
I think that Jesus, if nominated, would not run. Jesus’ function as a prophet transcends political partisanship. I am utterly convinced that he would have a corrective for all political parties, this is what prophets do. Let me be clear [...]

The late Jewish theologian and activist Abrahm Heschel coined the term “praying with my legs”. Religions & Ethics Weekly had a segment dedicated to him. Here’s a piece:

It was his participation in the civil rights movement that first made Heschel widely known. In a famous photo of the Selma march in [...]

I continue my readings of They Like Jesus but not the Church.  Author Dan Kimball writes about Charles Templeton, a powerful evangelist and close friend of Billy Graham.  Templeton eventually doubt his faith and abandons it all together.  He became one of Christianity’s greatest critics too, writing a book called Farewell to God: My Reasons [...]

Some great stuff has happened the last few days. Our church, Metro Hope, had its first annual barbecue at Marcus Garvey Park. We had friends, neighbors, and relatives come down for a great time. Mayra happened to overhear some people in the park talk about the diversity of the group, which was [...]

Having relationships only with Christians made it difficult to obey the teachings of Jesus about being on a mission for him and being salt and light to the world…I started to feel convicted that I had become a part of the Christian subculture, that strange bubble which little by little sucks you into it, and [...]

John the Baptist, in response to people saying Jesus’ ministry was blowing up and his was not said, “I must decrease and he must increase”. That was an amazing statement.
As for me, I know there are times when I like my ego to be well situated and in full effect. Ego can [...]

In both the introduction and first chapter of They Like Jesus but not the Church, Dan Kimbal talks about people’s misconceptions of Christians. He partly attributes this to a few Christians on television, who pretty much represent the whole bunch of us. Meanwhile there’s a whole generation of twenty to thirty something [...]

But not the Church…
I just received this book via Amazon.  At first glance some folks might think the author, Dan Kimball, is just another person who is attempting to deconstruct and criticize the church.  This aint the case though.  As I perused some of the chapters, you see that he’s a [...]

About community that is… But community is hard work.
I don’t like to lose my privacy. I often want the world to be about my own concerns. Meanwhile it seems so much easier to hang around people we’ve known for years, and do life with them.
It’s so much easier to have church [...]