Thoughts on Life, Ministry, and Writing

Your Calling Is More Than Your Paycheck
Don’t Rule Out Bi-Vocational Ministry
This week, Benjamin Vrbicek released his new book, Don’t Just Send a Resume: How to Find the Right Job in a Local Church. I was honored to not only provide the book an endorsement but also to have contributed an article on bi-vocational ministry. Benjamin has kindly given me permission to share my portion. I hope...

5 Writing Podcasts to Listen to Over the Holidays
If you enjoy a podcast, the best gift you can give this Christmas is a review.
Recently, I’ve had the privilege of interviewing several other podcast hosts on the Pastor Writer podcast. These days, there are some great podcasts for Christian writers. I thought I’d pass along a list of a few shows I’ve been enjoying. PS: If you enjoy a podcast, the best gift you can give this Christmas is a review....

Why Every Millennial Man Should Reread The Samson Story
I like to imagine him in Ray-Bans, a man bun, and a CrossFit t-shirt, hiking through...
“The modern hero is the outsider. His experience is rootless. He can go anywhere. He belongs nowhere. Being alien to nothing, he ends up being alienated from any type of community based on common tastes and interests. The borders of his country are the sides of his skull.” ― Flannery O’Connor, The Catholic Novelist in...

Operation Finale: A Gripping Depiction of Mundane Evil
The Image of Adolph Eichmann
A few weeks ago, I saw the movie, Operation Finale. It tells the story of a secret Israeli operation to infiltrate Argentina and capture Adolf Eichmann, a former Nazi SS officer, credited for his influential role in planning and directing the Final Solution, the German execution of more than six million Jews. After the war,...

4 Questions I Wish I Could Ask Jordan Peterson About Faith and Christianity
Plus, 18 relevant articles and videos
Central to the plot of Ayn Rand’s classic 1957 novel, Atlas Shrugged, is the repeatedly posed question, “Who is John Galt?” The novel is about an increasingly tyrannical government undermined by a mysterious individual who workes to sabotage the bureaucracy by helping entrepreneurs and business owners vanish from the workforce; Galt covertly subverts the system...

Eugene Peterson at The Writer’s Symposium
The ordination of writers
It’s hard to overestimate the impact Eugene Peterson has had on me as a pastor and as a writer. This video is a conversation with Peterson and Dean Nelson at the Point Loma Nazarene University’s Writer’s Symposium by the Sea in 2007. More than writing, Peterson offers deep wisdom into the lifestyle of the pastor...

John Piper on the Calling to Write
Sensing and evaluating a call
John Piper discusses how to sense if you are being called to write. If you have ever thought God was calling you to write, Piper offers sound advice on evaluating that call. He describes the levels of awareness that helps us solidify and build confidence in our writing and call. Listen on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RLTZ9RLGZU

The Writing Life of Craig Keener
From research to writing to editing
I’ve recently been working through Craig Keener’s 4-part commentary on the Book of Acts. I’ll be preaching through the Book of Acts this summer and fall. Keener’s book is remarkable and massive. I once heard a scholar suggest that it will be the most important work on Acts for at least the next 100 years....

This Rock On My Desk: Nineveh and Tarshish
The choice we must keep making.
There is a round rock that sits on my desk between my screen and the keyboard. Honestly, it’s a little strange because it could easily be mistaken for a small potato. But it’s a rock. A good friend brought it back from a service trip to Iraq. He was part of a team taking food...

Frederick Buechner on Writing, Church, And Finding Your Voice
Why finding your voice matters as much in the pulpit as on the page
Below is a 4-part video series of Walter Brueggemann interviewing author and ordained minister, Frederick Buechner. The interview covers a wide range of topics from Buechner’s seminary experience to the importance of the pastor’s voice. “With a religious book it is less what we see in it than what we see through it that matters.” — Frederick...