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…
Read MorePicturing 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…
Read More3MMM | Exciting News: Podcast is Coming!
Ash Wednesday We have some good news to share. Weekly episodes of the Three Minute Ministry Mentor are coming to you in a new form: the 3MMM Podcast. Where do you listen to podcasts? On a run, a hike, or…
Read More3MMM | Episode 14: Contemplative Prayer
Prayer. What is the connection between the practice of prayer and the practice of ministry? The responses to this question could fill many pages of many books. (My own responses fill many posts in this blog.) The connections we make…
Read MoreAsh Wednesday
Lenten Lights A Woke up to heavy fog this morning. After dropping off my daughter at school, I headed for the Cumberland River, by way of an untaken path. I ended up at a small boat ramp. I photographed ducks…
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Love, Courage and Trust for Lent I wasn’t ready for this week. It’s been theological and emotional whiplash. And we’re only to Wednesday. The Grammy Awards, the State of the Union address, my daughter’s mid-winter teacher conference and three-day break,…
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Music for the Journey from Fat Tuesday to Ash Wednesday On Mardi Gras I spent the day at the house of the Sisters of Charity in Leavenworth, Kansas. I was leading a retreat with a lovely group of new Presbyterian…
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Ash Wednesday “In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die. Where you invest your love, you invest your life. Awake my soul.” — Mumford and Sons Today is the day. Ash Wednesday. We begin the trek…
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“Letting Go: An Ash Wednesday Reflection”
DRIVING TO CHURCH IN THE GATHERING darkness of a late-winter afternoon, I find myself in a state of persistent indecision. By the time I arrive at the Ash Wednesday service at my church, I’ve still reached no conclusion about what I should give up or take up for the Lenten season. Like most years, as Ash Wednesday approaches I wonder what will make my journey more meaningful. What do I need in this season? Some years the need is to let go of some burden; in other years the call is to take up some spiritual practice. Still other years I settle on nothing and wander through Lent more lost than the children of Israel in the wilderness.