Speaking
My primary venue for speaking is with the congregation I serve as minister. Between September and June, I preach an average of three times per month. During the summer I tend to preach once per month.
I am fortunate to get to collaborate with an incredible music director, director of religious eduction, and office administrator as well as a team of dedicated lay-leaders to bring our weekly worship services to life.
As a Humanist and Religious Naturalist in terms of my primary theological influences, I draw on themes from nature, poetry, contemporary culture, and stories from humankind for these services.
Most years, I develop a sermon series to span the ten month program year. My most recent was exploring our tools for survival and thriving during times of apocalypse which I called Our Toolkits for Life. Samples of those services are shared below and many other services can be found on BuxMont UU Fellowship’s website.
Our Toolkits for Life Sermon Series
Below is a collection of Sunday service excerpts, the entire services can be found in BuxMont's archives.
Seeds
What do you need in your toolkit
for life to survive?
What do you need to thrive?Throughout the year Rev. Kevin will explore different items in our toolkits.
This Sunday we explore food and the more intentional source of food: seeds. To make use of seeds, we need a plan, we need time, and we need patience. Seeds require more than survival, they require a little faith too.
Company
What do you need in your toolkit
for life to survive?
What do you need to thrive?Throughout the year Rev. Kevin will explore different items in our toolkits. This Sunday we explore company and our need to be with others. How do we gather with compassion and how do we invite others into community, family, and to our common tables?
Story
What do you need in your toolkit
for life to survive?
What do you need to thrive?Throughout the year Rev. Kevin will explore different items in our toolkits. This Sunday we explore stories.
How do the stories we tell help us understand who we are? How do stories help us survive challenging times? And how do stories inspire us to create better futures?
Fire
What do you need in your toolkit
for life to survive?
What do you need to thrive?
Throughout the year Rev. Kevin will explore different items in our toolkits. This Sunday we explore fire. Carl Jung wrote “As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.” As a new year begins, we will start by letting go of that which no longer serves us in our annual Fire Ceremony.
Maps
What do you need in your toolkit
for life to survive?
What do you need to thrive?Throughout the year Rev. Kevin will explore different items in our toolkits.
This Sunday we explore maps. How do we find our way when we are lost?
How do we update our maps when they become outdated? What are the important guideposts that help us orient ourselves?
Let’s find our way together.
Medicine
What do you need in your toolkit
for life to survive?
What do you need to thrive?Throughout the year Rev. Kevin will explore different items in our toolkits. This Sunday we explore medicine. What is it that helps us become well or maintain wellness? Where do we find the medicines we need in a world of misinformation? What are obstacles historically that made it difficult to get well or to prioritize wellness?
Notebooks
What do you need in your toolkit
for life to survive?
What do you need to thrive?Throughout the year Rev. Kevin will explore different items in our toolkits. This Sunday we explore notebooks.
Join us for an all-ages service where we will explore the history of notebooks while we also solve a mystery together Blue’s Clues style. When did humans start using notebooks? How do notebooks help us settle our minds, organize our lives, and come up with things never before seen? This simple tool helped change the world and we will get to experience it in real-time together.
Shelter
What do you need in your toolkit
for life to survive?
What do you need to thrive?
Throughout the year Rev. Kevin will explore different items in our toolkits. This Sunday we explore shelter. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. writes “Where we love is home – home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.” Our shelters protect us from the elements and our homes reflect our values. How does a shelter become a home? What do we need to find home wherever we find ourselves in the world?
A Good Knife
What do you need in your toolkit
for life to survive?
What do you need to thrive?Throughout the year Rev. Kevin will explore different items in our toolkits.
This Sunday we explore a good knife. Father John Culkin writes, “We become what we behold. We shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us.” When do our tools become weapons? Can something turn back from weapon to tool? How are we impacted by the tools we create and how do our tools shape the world we create together? Join us in exploring when a knife (or a word or an object) is a tool, a weapon, or something else.
Finding Joy
Amidst Apocalypse
Apocalypse is often imagined as the ultimate ending of things, however it is actually a genre of storytelling about the revealing of mysteries to humanity and new beginnings. How does the intersection of unraveling and revealing lead to new possibilities? And where is joy found as things seem to simultaneously fall apart when something new comes into focus?
Backpacks
What do you need in your toolkit
for life to survive?
What do you need to thrive?Throughout the year Rev. Kevin will explore different items in our toolkits. This Sunday we explore backpacks. What do we carry with us? How do we make containers for the ephemeral parts of our lives? In this last service of our year-long theme we put together all the tools we’ve explored: Water, Seeds, Company, Stories, Fire, Maps, Medicine, Notebooks, Shelter, a Good Knife, and we reflect on how we carry them with us moving forward.
Beyond BuxMont
Outside of weekly Sunday morning services at BuxMont, I guest preach in other communities a few times each year. I also speak at conferences and in social justice efforts particularly on the topics of LGBTQ+ justice, immigration justice, around issues of non-theistic identity, and religious/interfaith inclusion for those who do not believe in deities.