Adam L. Feldman's Blog

About this time last year I approached our church’s elders with a request. Could I and our other staff pastor, Jesse, take sabbaticals in 2019? We endured a few years of heavily intense ministry (see “Welcome Back, Stranger!”) and our spiritual, mental, and emotional reserves were depleted. The elders granted the request and provided a month-long sabbatical for Jesse in early 2019 and a three-month sabbatical for me from June through August. (Jesse is part time staff and I am full time, which...

*Ping* There goes your phone notification again. Was it a Tweet that you were mentioned in? Maybe a Facebook message? An Instagram photo from your Crossfit coach? Or was it a text from your mother, or an email from your brother? Maybe it was a calendar notification reminding you of an upcoming meeting, or perhaps a reminder from your task management software. Maybe it is an incoming video call? Whatever it was… you’re sufficiently distracted and swiping your screen to see why it wants your at...

“Authenticity” is a popular word in our society right now. It is used in many ways and is sometimes used interchangeably with “transparency.” For instance, we live in an age that expects transparency at the highest levels of government and commerce. What we really want is to know if our leaders are “authentic” representations of their public persona.

Authenticity as we define the value at our church (Metanoia Church) involves transparency, but it also encompasses integrity, honesty, and even...

“Passion” is also a buzz word in popular culture. We hear the constant message in movies, tv shows, songs, and other media to “follow your heart,” that kernel of “passion” within you. A few years ago, I made the switch from digital to analogue calendaring and task management. While I still use calendar and task manager apps on my devices, I find it much more freeing and rewarding to do my initial planning with pencil and paper. The planner of my choice for the past few years is called “Passio...

The Christian religion is at its core a relational religion. For example, while there are commandments that we as Christians must obey, our obedience is not an end to itself nor is a means to an end. In other words, our obedience is not the point of our faith (i.e. “the end”) nor is it the means to getting God to do something on our behalf (i.e. “the means”). Rather, our obedience is a response to what God has done for us by grace and who God is to us in Christ. We obey because we are in a re...

What comes to your mind when you read or hear the word “worship?”

Maybe you think of a “worship service” when the church comes together on Sunday mornings to worship the Lord. Perhaps you think of the songs sung together on those Sunday mornings, maybe the times of prayer, or perhaps the sermon?

When you read or hear the word “worship,” do you also think about professional sports? The mall? The New York Stock Exchange? How about the sexual revolution, or the 2018 mid-term elections? Do Netfli...

Last year I worked through a prayer journal by Stephen Macchia entitled Come Home, My Soul: 31 Days of Praying the Living Word. The journal consists of 31 prayers found throughout Scripture. Each prayer is introduced with a brief devotional word and is followed by a simple reflection prompt.

I am a fan of praying through Scripture. I don’t think there’s any better way to develop your spiritual vocabulary for prayer than to pray the words God’s people have prayed for several thousand years. Th...

As last summer drew to a close, I preached preached a 2-part sermon series on our church’s 6 values with Jesse Florida, my co-pastor at Metanoia Church. We chose John 4:1-43 as our text because we see all 6 of our values reflected in some way in that Scripture.

I began sharing with you some of my reflections on these values (see “Valuing Truth”) in the hopes that you will be encouraged to reflect on the role they play in healthy spiritual community and spiritual development.

Today we explore...

The last three years were a blur. That’s one word to describe that period of time. These years were an amalgamation of disasters, set-backs, disappointments, and a side-order of grace.

Perhaps a better word to describe the past three years is “chaos.” Sure, there were days when things seemed to come together and the terrain of each day wasn’t too disorienting, but my general experience was daily (sometimes hour-by-hour) navigating myself, my family, and my church through chaotic circumstances...

Eight years ago the members of our church gathered for a weekend retreat in western Maryland to prayerfully bring to completion a 5-month process to discern our church’s values. The 5-month discernment process began in November of 2009 with a survey of our membership, and then continued through 3 monthly focus group meetings facilitated by a coach. The fruit of the focus group was discerning 6 values: truth, worship, mission, relationship, passion, and authenticity. During the retreat in earl...