A pastor I watched and learned from . . . In my kind of work you can’t really help but know a lot of pastors. And I feel gratitude, love and respect for most all the ones I know. They…
Read MoreOrdinary Time XII
Public Image Tonight, and for the next few posts, I’m continuing to unpack an earlier list of advice for those considering ministry. As already noted, proverbs or lists of advice have their place (for example in scripture), but also reduce…
Read MoreOrdinary Time IV
Northwest Chapel of the Cross on the campus of Luther Seminary St. Paul, Minnesota Where I will be preaching on Friday.
Read MoreEaster III
Advocacy +++++++++++++++ “One of the hardest things women in ministry have to do is advocate for themselves.” Monday. I’m sitting in on a monthly meeting of the “Heightening the Role of Women in Baptist Life.” It is a conversation hosted…
Read MoreOrdinary Time XVII
Cultural Daze (Part I): I’m not in culture shock exactly. But I do feel a bit dazed after spending most of yesterday in situations where everything was new and unfamiliar to me. I was in a minority. I stood out in ways that made me feel uncomfortable. I did not understand most of what I heard or saw. I tried to prepare, but reading and asking a few questions was not adequate. I tried to participate, but I kept feeling like I was getting things wrong. In fact I was getting things wrong.
Read MoreHoly Week I
Holy Week. As I removed my shoes tonight and pressed my feet to the cold tiles in the sanctuary I was taken back. . . . In my final year of seminary I preached to my peers and friends at Southern Seminary. It was the first (and I suppose the only) time I preached in my seminary community (outside of preaching class anyway). It was Maundy Thursday in 1993. It was something of a renegade service.
Read MoreLent III
“On practicing Our Faith” On practice. On practicing our faith. On practicing our faith with the Jesus story.
Where exactly are we in the Jesus story, right about now? Let’s try to locate ourselves on our journey through the Jesus story. The lectionary. You recall what that is: the list of scriptures that reaches out across the Christian landscape and leads us week by week and season by season through each church year. Each year we follow the Jesus story in the Gospel readings . . .
