Sunday, July 3 I sat down to meditate for 10 minutes this morning. It was a disaster. No effort to pray contemplatively is really wasted. But I was a mess. I vacillated between almost falling asleep and my mind being…
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#PandemicPastoring | A New Report
Download the #PandemicPastoring Report today! The #PandemicPastoring Study Guide is available NOW! We are living in a new era of ministry. We need to talk about it and explore how to live into the new season with creativity, grace, and…
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3MMM | Episode 155: Celebrate Pride Part 3
Today is our final post for Celebrate PRIDE this week! We are sharing stories of ministers in the Learning Pastoral Imagination (LPI) Project. Every time we tell a story or share a narrative from our research, we believe it becomes…
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3MMM | Episode 154: Celebrate Pride Part 2
Welcome to Part 2 of Celebrate PRIDE this week! We are sharing stories of ministers who identify as LGBTIQA+ in the Learning Pastoral Imagination (LPI) Project. This week we drop in on two ministers at the stage of deciding on…
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3MMM | Episode 153: Celebrate Pride Part 1
This week we are celebrating PRIDE month with stories of ministers in the Learning Pastoral Imagination (LPI) Project. Every time we tell a story or share a narrative from our research, we believe it becomes a source of acknowledgement and…
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3MMM | Episode 152: Ordination Blessing
In the past nine days I attended two seminary graduations, three worship services where we blessed graduates, and one live-stream ordination. Each event gave me a sense of joy. Yet the joy was also rooted in something more complicated. Something…
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3MMM | Episode 151: Graduation Blessings
Graduation Blessings take many forms. Big accomplishments receive most of the praise. Public words of blessing ring out for awards, achievements, and milestones. And this is right and good. And yet. Much of the substance of life is mostly not…
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3MMM | Episode 150: Caring with Holy Fierceness
What does it mean to care with holy fierceness? Let’s begin with what we mean by holy fierceness. In Chapter 48 of Pastoral Imagination, I introduce this idea. I first heard the idea when interviewing cohort of divinity school graduates…
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3MMM | Episode 149: Teaching Pastoral Imagination
Perhaps you have been hearing about the concept of pastoral imagination for a while. We hope so! And maybe you are wondering: how would someone teach that? Today, let’s talk about teaching pastoral imagination, the concept, the book and the…
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3MMM | Episode 148: Easter Blessings
Today we want to offer you some Easter blessings and thanks. If you follow the Roman calendar, then you are now in Eastertide. It’s Easter Monday and that means it is time for laughing, jokes, putting your feet up for…
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3MMM | Holy Week Labyrinth
After a long trek through Lent, Holy Week is here, and we have a Labyrinth Guide for you. My hope is that helps you keep moving through this final week leading to Easter. More than 15 years ago, I created…
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3MMM | Episode 145: Women’s History Month
As we come to the end of Women’s History Month, I want to reflect briefly with you about my past week. My vocation began with a call to ministry while I was still in high school. I certainly could not…
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3MMM | Episode 144: Freedom and Liberation
This week I want to share with you PART II of my interview with Rev. Dr. Angela Parker and her thoughts on freedom and liberation. In PART I of our conversation we talked about her new book, If God Can…
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3MMM | Episode 143: Embodied & Relational Reading
What are you reading this week, and have you considered how to read with your fully embodied and relational self? Lent is fully underway. And the world is watching an entirely unjust war unfold in Ukraine. Refugees are flooding out…
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3MMM | Episode 142: Lenten Practices
Have you figured out your Lenten practices yet? Lent is coming soon! This week in fact. Wait. What? Wasn’t Jesus just in diapers? Now we are sending him out alone? Into the wilderness to face wild beasts? Well actually. Jesus…
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Picturing Pastoral Imagination
Picturing Pastoral Imagination Share a photo a day for Lent Show the world what pastoral imagination looks like in your life and ministry How do you picture pastoral imagination? This Lenten season we want to invite you to reflect on…
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3MMM | Episode 141: Permission to Read
Amid the latest rash of book bans, now is a good time to remind everyone that you have permission to read a book. Any book, in fact. You can read what suits you and introduce your children to those books…
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3MMM | Episode 140: Fearing Bravely
How does one fear bravely? How do love and courage and fear dwell together? Can they? This week I’m talking with author, Catherine McNiel about her new book Fearing Bravely: Risking Love for Our Neighbors, Strangers, and Enemies. We recorded our…
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3MMM | Episode 139: Permission to Grieve
There is so much to grieve these days. The list seems nearly endless. Yet grieving remains hard work, and it is easy to ignore or leave aside. This week I’m offering to you a way to give yourself permission. A…
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3MMM | Episode 138: Permission to Laugh
This week Erin Robinson Hall is sharing from her experience, giving us all permission to laugh. In these oh-so-challenging days we need sometimes need to give ourselves and each other a permission slip. If we can do the small things…
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3MMM | Episode 137: Permission to BE
This month I am having conversations with friends, family, students, fellow church members. In person (rarely), on phone calls, in texts, and by email. And in these conversations, I hear a resounding theme. We are exhausted, grieved, and uncertain about…
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