Chris Yaw

I am a Christ Lover

Chris Yaw

Welcome! I’m an Episcopal priest serving a congregation in Metro Detroit... With a passion for gun safety... A zest for online Christian formation... A zeal for video blogging... A budding writer... A heart for those who have unintentionally harmed... A commitment to workforce housing... A love for marrying people... And a wonderful wife, three kids, and a cat... If we have common interests or not, I'd love to connect with you.

Me

Contact Details


  • St. David's Episcopal Church, 16200 W. Twelve Mile Road, Southfield, Michigan, 48076, USA


  • +011 248-557-5430


  • chris@stdavidssf.org

St. David's

I have served as rector of St. David's Episcopal Church in Southfield, MI for 16 years, join us Sundays in person or via zoom.

St. David's Gun Disposal

Working on the issue of unwanted gun disposal, we've made some real progress in helping rid the U.S. of unwanted firearms.

ChurchNext

Since 2013 we have been helping people learn more about faith through our online learning courses at ChurchNext.

Oakland Housing

Helping middle income families get better housing is a challenge that Oakland Housing has been addressing for 75 years.

Hyacinth Fellowship

Because hurting others hurts us, the Hyacinth Fellowship organizes support groups and reminds us that we are not our worst mistakes.

Yaw Wedding

I have been officiating weddings for more than 20 years and continue to find joy in helping couples build lifelong relationships.

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U.S. Guns Produced Today
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Americans Accidentally Killed Today
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Homeless Americans
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Weddings Performed
  • Storehouses

    Storehouses


    “I need another job.”

    That’s what my friend said the other day after he finished paying his bills for the week.

    “If I just had another $200 a month, I would be on easy street.”

    While it’s true that for the desperately poor, more money is the answer to a lot of problems, for most Americans, it isn’t.

    In fact, our attempts to root our security in money, possessions, power, or political candidates only takes us so far.

    For example, our Gospel reading on Sunday tells about a rich man who cultivated crops then stored them up, not knowing he was going to die that night.

    How much better off he would have been – and you and me – if we were to cultivate the fruits of the Spirit and enlarge the storehouses of our hearts – trusting that God will take care of us?

    When we seek first, the things that God asks of us, the rest always falls into place.

    After all, there are two ways to be rich: Like John D. Rockefeller and like St. Francis. One owned almost everything, the other needed almost nothing. One was rich with stuff, the other was rich with God.

    When we trust in God we always have enough.
  • Prayer and Protest

    Prayer and Protest


    ‘We’re tired of prayer! We want action!’

    I’ve heard this saying more than once during this summer of simmering racial tension. Many of us are fed up with what’s been done in the past and we want something new – something more significant – to take its place. To various degrees I think we all share the frustration, anger, and deep disappointment over the way society is failing to be the free and just place we want it to be.

    However, one of the last things we need to jettison is prayer.

    Sure, in the wider society, prayer is often understood as an escape from the world. It is something that goes on behind closed church doors, where the faithful run away and hide from pressing problems, seeking to get a God-fix so they can live through another day of injustice - as Karl Marx said the opium of the people.

    However, I agree with our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry who recently said that prayer is not our way of fleeing the world, but our way of becoming more engaged with the world.

    The exercise of prayer calls us to consider the lives and challenges of others. It asks us to visualize, often in detail, the pressing problems facing others.

    It’s been said that if our inner life is rich, our outer work will never be insubstantial. However, if our outer life is big, our inner life may shrivel.

    In Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus takes on the issue of prayer as the basis of doing all that’s worthwhile. Prayer is our way of keeping perspective, showing compassion, and yes, deepening our souls in the troubles and triumphs that surround us. We pray to enrich our inner lives so that our work may be substantial. Prayer makes us more human and more divine.
  • Making Sense of New Beginnings

    Making Sense of New Beginnings

    ‘A New Beginning’ by John O’Donohue

    In out-of-the-way places of the heart, Where your thoughts never think to wander, This beginning has been quietly forming, Waiting until you were ready to emerge.
    For a long time it has watched your desire, Feeling the emptiness growing inside you, Noticing how you willed yourself on, Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.
    It watched you play with the seduction of safety And the gray promises that sameness whispered, Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent, Wondered would you always live like this.
    Then the delight, when your courage kindled, And out you stepped onto new ground, Your eyes young again with energy and dream, A path of plenitude opening before you.
    Though your destination is not yet clear You can trust the promise of this opening; Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning That is at one with your life’s desire.
    Awaken your spirit to adventure; Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk; Soon you will be home in a new rhythm, For your soul senses the world that awaits you.
  • Finding Our Center

    Finding Our Center


    The most important thing we can do right now is to center ourselves.

    This means reminding ourselves of who we are, what we’re here for, and why we’re doing what we’re doing. It means re-owning our singularity and sacredness. It means abandoning the sense that we’re somehow missing out on another life, one that’s more special than the one we’re living.

    No, we must seize this one. We must live deeply into our individuality, which Jesus has made divine. Our most important job is to be ourselves.

    This is not easy because despite its infinite beauty and possibility we cannot forget there’s a conspiracy afoot to knock us off course. Our greatest enemy is distraction.


    What’s distraction look like for you? In what ways is today taking us off course – or putting us back on course? How can we live more deeply, right now, into who we are, what we’re here for, and what we’re meant to be doing? How can we center ourselves?
  • The Second Notch

    The Second Notch


    Most of us have a sense of our ideal weight. For me it’s not measured in pounds or inches, but how comfortable my clothes are - specifically, if I’m able to go through the day with my belt at the second notch.

    Sure, it usually means not ordering exactly what I’d like at the restaurant, leaving food on my plate, or minimizing (even abstaining from) dessert. But when my clothes feel comfortable, it’s all worth it.

    In fact, when we think about it most things that are satisfying involve some sort of discomfort, inconvenience, or expense. I often use these as a way to validate my journey: if I’m going through the day and I’m not feeling uncomfortable, put out, or paying some sort of cost then I wonder just how giving I am; I wonder just how much I am contributing to the betterment of the world around me.

    Jesus is our role model here, as the One who selflessly gave at most every opportunity. But not only is he our example, he is the source of our strength. So if we are feeling uncomfortable, inconvenienced, and like we’re paying way too high a cost, he is there to strengthen and uphold us. We all have stories of the ways God has stepped in - to give when we felt like we had no more to give. So let us not be angered or annoyed by life’s discomforts, but see them as validation of the ways we are participating in a fuller and more satisfying life.
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    ADDRESS

    St. David's Episcopal Church, 16200 W. Twelve Mile Road, Southfield, MI 48076 USA

    EMAIL

    chris@stdavidssf.org

    TELEPHONE

    +011 248-557-5430