It was Sunday morning on August 27, 2017. It was 20 hours after Harvey made landfall and 42 inches of floodwater now filled my home. Frantically, and foolishly, my wife and I waded through the murky waters to save anything we could…

Through the East End Missional Community, St. Paul’s UMC intertwines itself with the lives of more neighbors in the diverse city of Houston. As senior pastor Rev. Tommy Williams says, "It is one more way to go where the people are."

An interview with Henry Philpott, who will represent St. Paul's Youth in the 70.3k Gulf Coast Half Ironman Triathlon on May 13, 2017.

Before St. Paul’s knew me as "pastor," I knew St. Paul's  as “a cathedral for the city.”

I moved to Houston from Seattle in July 2015 to be closer to Paul, my then fiancé, now husband. From the apartments at 8181 Fannin where I lived with my two best friends from college, St. Paul’s was the closest United Methodist church to me—just six short stops down the red line.

What is the first thing you think of when you think of the artist Edgar Degas? I think of ballerinas. The beautiful dancers with their hair pinned up, skirts full of body that flow to their knees, along with their ballet shoes with ribbon laced up their legs

A reflection on masking from a recent Healing Art Circle gathering.

Inside shining through on the outside… Have tried to cover what is inside, which has created pain and shame. There are moments when the inside does shine through, but not sure when.

It was summertime, 2014. The news and the sermons were powerful—children, minors at our border. Just a few hours’ drive from my comfortable home with a playroom full of toys and anything my young children could desire, there were children: exhausted, lost, alone, terrified.

I often get emails from people who want to come see the bells in St. Paul's tower, but recently I received an email that was a little different. A mom wrote me saying that her 3-year-old son had a fascination with all types of bells. They were in Houston while her son was receiving treatments in the Med Center and wanted to come visit. 

"I used to work for someone who would send me to clean houses," she said. "I never got to meet the people I was cleaning for. I would go all over the city to do the work. But no matter how hard I worked, I could never make enough money to pay my bills."