Thoughts on Life, Ministry, and Writing
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...
Thoughts On Being A Bi-Vocational Pastor
How I’ve come to love being a working pastor.
This summer will be our fifth anniversary of planting Bent Oak Church. For the entire five years, I have been a bi-vocational pastor. It might be more accurate to say, for most of it, I’ve been a volunteer. A year ago the church began to pay me for one day a week. Of course, Sundays...