Connor Gwin is an Episcopal/Anglican priest in Southwestern Virginia serving as a School Chaplain. He is a lover of poetry, bluegrass, and 90's hip-hop. Connor is married to Emma and they have one daughter.
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My Honest Recommendation
Part of being a school chaplain is writing college recommendations for students. Most colleges want similar information. Is the student responsible, driven, civic-minded, a good student? Some colleges ask more specific questions. What has the student done to serve their community? How is the student committed to making the world a better place? The recommendation […]
You Don’t Have To Be Grateful
We have reached halftime in the holiday season sprint from Halloween to Christmas: Thanksgiving. The least commercialized of all American holidays, Thanksgiving stands apart as a holiday focused not on gift-giving or material consumption, but on gratitude. Problematic history aside, Thanksgiving presents an opportunity to gather with family and friends and reflect on all the […]
Qualifying the Reckless Love of God
Those who listen to Contemporary Christian Music know that every few years a mega-hit comes along that sits on the top of the CCM charts for months. Played on every Christian radio station and by every praise band across the country, this song is usually catchy in the extreme and hip to the nth degree. […]
My Church Is Not CrossFit
I cannot do CrossFit. I’m not being sarcastic. I really wish I could, but a medical condition prevents me from taking part in the Workout of the Day (WoD). I have many friends that swear by CrossFit. They find it meets a multitude of needs, both physical and social. When I was newly ordained and working on a […]
‘Never Stop Improving’ and the Myth of Ontological Change
There is a moving box sitting on the floor of our dining room. This box has been taunting me since the day we moved. Emblazoned on the side of the box is a simple corporate slogan that constantly cuts me to the core: Never stop improving. This is where we find ourselves in 2018. Our […]
We All Have a Hunger
At seventeen, I started to starve myself. I thought that love was a kind of emptiness, And at least I understood then the hunger I felt, And I didn’t have to call it loneliness. Florence and the Machine’s new single Hunger comes out of the corner swinging. From the first line, you know this is […]
I Think We’re Alone Now
We live in an age of loneliness. As David Zahl pointed out at the recent NYC Mockingbird Conference, the age of anxiety has given way to an age of loneliness, the effects of which can be felt by everyone. The U.K. has appointed a Minister of Loneliness. We are divided from each other in myriad […]
Mountaintop Experiences Are For The Birds
In my work with youth and young adults, I hear a lot about mountaintop experiences. These experiences are moments when the daily grind of life comes to a halt, the busy world is hushed, and you can experience God and community to the fullest. I often hear about mountaintop experiences at summer camps or youth […]
The World’s Greatest Dad
My wife is pregnant with our first child, which means that soon I will become the World’s Greatest Dad. I know this because I have done all the self-work necessary to understand how my parents failed me in my childhood. Using this self-knowledge, I will not make any of the mistakes my mother and father […]
Apparently I Am Not James Bond
When I was young I loved action movies. Pierce Brosnan’s James Bond was a focal point of my pre-adolescent years. I owned action movies on VHS, played their corresponding video games, and collected any paraphernalia that I could get my hands on. On leaving the theater, after seeing the newest action thriller, the world seemed […]
Five Years of Grace and Bad Coffee: Sobriety and Holy Week
On Tuesday night of Holy Week, I sat under fluorescent lights at a plastic folding table and gripped a styrofoam cup of bad coffee. Around the room sat men from all walks of life. Respectable businessmen, craftsmen and laborers, men living in a residential rehab or halfway house, and me: a young clergyman who looks […]
Closer Than You Think (The Trouble With Deconstruction)
Deconstruction is having a moment. There are podcasts and books galore about the process of deconstructing (usually damaging or negative) religious belief. Take one step back from deconstruction and you have the phenomenon of doubt in modern Christian writing. At some point in the last ten years, doubt began to be the prerequisite for an […]
