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This past week some of our pastoral team and I sat with a family who had just lost their son, brother and grandson. He took his own life. As I spoke with his parents, sisters and grandparents, a deep feeling of inadequacy engulfed me. I didn’t know what to say. Any thought of a word …
Continue reading "A New Year’s Desire: Learning To Listen Well"
1. I must arrange my life so that I am experiencing deep contentment, joy and confidence in my everyday life with God (Dallas Willard). Why? Because the call to discipleship of Jesus means that I must arrange my life around a life-giving friendship with Jesus. Failure to do this will result in a chasing after …
Continue reading "10 things I’m learning about life and pastoral leadership."
We’re living in traumatic times. And pastoring a community at this time is traumatic. Almost every day brings news of another person who is ill, many of them in our congregations. I spoke with a friend the other day who said he conducted six funerals last week. Six. We’re living through something a bit like war-time …
Continue reading "When you’re not sure what to pray anymore."
As 2020 draws to a close, I’ve been reflecting on the year that turned our world upside down. To live through a pandemic is not exactly a privilege, but it does invite some opportunities for reflection and learning. Opportunities to reflect on our lives, and opportunities to learn about the world that we find ourselves …
COVID 19 has left me feeling lonely as a pastor. I’m lonely not being able to see our congregation. Not being able to see faces, pick up body language, listen to stories. Not being able to share the triumphs and tragedies, the ups and downs of life. In person. I’m lonely not being able to …
There are three things about our friendship with Jesus that enable us to imagine a future that’s good and hopeful. FRIENDSHIP God did not simply want a relationship with us. He wanted something much more. Something more intimate. God always wanted a friendship with us, and not simply a relationship. A relationship is transactional, but …
100 years ago, miners would carry caged canaries down into the mine tunnels with them. If dangerous gases such as carbon monoxide collected in the mine, the gases would kill the canary before killing the miners, thus providing a warning to exit the tunnels immediately. The idea for this was first proposed around 1913 and …
Our son Caleb is seven and he’s obsessed with Lego at the moment. The minute he is finished with his school work for the day he races off down the passage like someone who just got let out of lockdown! He returns triumphantly a few moments later, staggering as he shoulders the enormous box of …
This is our favourite tree in our garden. It’s leaves are always the last to turn the dramatic colours of Autumn. It feels like our favourite tree holds out for as long as it can and then finally, reluctantly capitulates to the new season surrounding it. Eventually it’s leaves begin to turn colour. Yellow. Red. …
The world is loud these days. Social media Fake newsGaslightingIdentity politics These are words that barely existed ten years ago. What they all have in common is that they are the result of hype. And they cause hype. Hype: "extravagant or intensive publicity or promotion.” The hype levels in our world are increasing. Everyone’s got an opinion (whether grounded …
Byron Chicken 