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How to train pastors
I am fairly locked into the life of Bonhoeffer right now. I am working through a book, Bonhoeffer the Assassin? by Nation, Siegrist, and Umbel. I read Marsh’s biography of Bonhoeffer and recently finished Life Together by Bonhoeffer. We need his example in this day for our cultural Christianity.
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The love of something more
“I love being an American. I love this place in which I have been placed — its language, its history, its energy. But I don’t love ‘the American way,’ its culture and values. I don’t love the rampant consumerism that treats God as a product to be marketed. I don’t love the dehumanizing ways that turn men, women, and children…
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On the occasion of my ordination anniversary
Four years ago I was ordained by the grace of God to the sacred order of deacons in the Anglican Church. It was a holy moment for me as I was making a huge shift in my ministry life. It was also during COVID, so it was memorable in more ways than one.
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A confession: I am a big fat failure
Ezekiel 2:1-7 The biblical calling to a ministry is so different than the “call” Western Christianity calls people to. Ezekiel is called to the prophetic ministry. That has a certain connotation in certain Charismatic/Pentecostal circles, and I would venture to guess that the picture we have in our minds is different than Ezekiel’s call.
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Missing the Kingdom of God
Last Sunday our gospel text was Mark 3:23-35. The story here is the pressure Jesus is getting from his family and then the religious leaders. Neither one is happy with him. For his family, Jesus was avoiding them and his ministry was attracting so many people that his own family couldn’t get into their own home to eat. This put…
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The under-utilized ministry of a deacon
One alternate text for the 5th Sunday of Easter this year is Acts 8:26-40, the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. Having grown up in a Pentecostal tradition, we didn’t have any true category for “deacon.” We saw “deacon” in 1 Timothy but in most churches that was translated to “board member.” It wasn’t an ordained ministry.
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A deepening of my faith and calling
Two recent books that have deepened my faith and calling: This Foundational Order by Dr. Tara Jernigan The Book of Common Prayer: A Biography by Dr. Alan Jacobs
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Remembering ordination
It was three years ago I was ordained as a vocational deacon in the Anglican Church of North America. I had been in ministry over 30 years in another denomination. When I was transferring my ordination into the Anglican Church, it was on the assumption I would come in as a priest. The Spirit has had other plans. It would…
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Reflecting on Philip the Deacon and my own ordination
This month will be three years I have been ordained as a vocational deacon in the Anglican Church. I am grateful to reflect on that calling this time of year, especially with the Feast of Philip the Deacon and Evangelist being in the same month.
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Tim Keller — ministry shifts he engaged
I am working my way through Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation by Collin Hansen.
Tag: Ministry
