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How do you keep the/a Sabbath? How did you start your Sabbath practices? What were your Sabbath practices growing up? When/why did they change? If you had total control over your schedule and ample time, what would be your ideal way of spending Sabbath...
I really do have a post of my own coming up soon, but I had to link to this post from St. Casserole about older members of the congregation. With her usual mix of humor and eloquence, she writes: "A colleague north of here says he is hurt by the...
I've been finishing up my Easter sermon today, and thinking about the trouble with Easter. The trouble with Easter, I think, is not that believing in Jesus' resurrection is so hard. We've believed in stranger things happening. It's in...
Last Sunday (the 9th) I attended another district learning day, this time with Rev. Eric Law . I've heard Eric Law speak before, at a GBCS meeting , and I wondered what this session would be like among clergy and lay people on the district. Here are...
I've been following the primaries for the Presidency with great interest, like many of us in the US and around the world that have been caught up in this most interesting of election years, when the presidency has been really up for grabs more than...
Lately I've been struggling with what I expect is a typical pastoral dilemma. There are so many things I think about us doing together as a congregation long term, so many visions I have, so many things that float through my mind as possibilities...
Okay, here’s the second part of my reflections on the Bishop’s Convocation. Our second keynote was Leonard Sweet . Sweet is a professor of Evangelism at Drew (among, of course, other things), and so I had him for class in seminary, and had his books as...
I'm at the Bishop's Convocation in Greater New Jersey right now, and I'll have comments to share about that later in the week. But for right now, I've been thinking a lot about the pastor as prophet. Are pastors prophets? Two comments...
It's January 1st of a new year. Some people think a new year is no big deal. Some people don't make resolutions because they've failed at resolutions before and they think they're setting themselves up for failure. Some people are ready...
For the past several years, I've been leading Blue Christmas services in my congregation, and this year, it's a first for Franklin Lakes UMC . A Blue Christmas or Longest Night service is a service to give a space for those who are grieving or...
I recently finished reading Reinventing Sunday: Breakthrough Ideas for Transforming Worship , a short book by Brad Berglund. I picked it up while I was still in Oneida, particularly with our then-running second evening service, looking for different ideas...
I recently finished reading John Cobb's Reclaiming the Church: Where the Mainline Church Went Wrong and What to Do about It. John Cobb is my favorite theologian - I was introduced to his work in Systematic Theology in seminary , and I felt like I'd...
I've written a bit about pastors and work-week schedules before , though not in much detail. But I just finished reading Coffeepastor's post about his schedule, and like Cheesehead , who responded with her own post, I thought I'd do the same...
I don't know if any of you are ER fans, but I've been watching it on and off since it first came on air. This week, they introduced a new character - a hospital chaplain (female, as it happens) who will become the romantic interest for one of...
Here's my last set of reflections/notes from the Drew Tipple-Vosburgh Lectures: Dr. Jouette Bassler was on again, this time as Bible Study leader, and she focused on Luke's Parable of the Shrewd Manager. I really wished I had attended this talk...
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