Camino Diary 4

We woke up early in Roncevalles earlier than we planned to. Sometime around 5:30 a.m. someone’s alarm went off and off and off and off. They were either sleeping through it, something everyone in my cubicle couldn’t do, or they had gone to get a shower and forgot to turn it off before they walked

Manipulation, pt 2

This is Pastoral Ministry Tuesday. Every week I try to contribute a post about a pastor’s life. This is the second of two parts and you can read Part One by clicking the link. And now, on with today’s post… Manipulating people isn’t unique to the Church or to church leaders. I’d call it a

TELOS pt 1

(On Credo Fridays I try to post something that reflects the current state of my beliefs. Today begins a multi-part entry about the TELOS.) When I first started following Jesus it seemed to me that the point of all of this – this following, this life – was a close relationship with God. By the

Camino Diary pt 3

(These entries are a series based on my journal and recollections from walking the Camino de Santiago with my friends Bill and Derrick, Sept/Oct 2019.) My journal entry for this day is brief. Its brevity is a reflection of how overwhelmed I felt by the experience of my first day on the Camino from St.

Manipulation

It’s Pastoral Ministry Tuesday. Here’s an important question that comes up in pastoral ministry, “How do you get people to do what you want/need them to do?” Most of the time we’re a little more nuanced in the way we ask it. We save the blunt questions until we’re alone in a “senior pastors only”

A Case of the Nopes

I made a commitment post something on Fridays as part of my Credo series where I unpack what I believe. This week, between a nasty cold (I’m a terrible sick person) and a jaw problem that is intruding on my plans, I’ve decided the most important thing I can post is that I’m not posting

Camino Diaries pt 2

Tuesday, September 3. I made the first notes of the day sitting at a café table outside a train station in Biarritz, waiting for our first train of the day. Nearby, six French women huddled around another table, sipping coffee, smoking cigarettes and talking so fast to each other I couldn’t recognize a single word

Money

One myth about pastors is that they’re always preaching about money. The funny thing is Jesus and the prophets talked a lot about money. And for those firmly embedded in a consumer culture, every T.V. commercial break is really a 30 second conversation about money. But while our culture chatters on and on about money,

Diversity

On Friday, I’m sharing my Credo, the current details of the story of my beliefs, the values and ideas that make me what I am. I’m not where I started and I assume this isn’t where I’ll end up either but for now, these are the elements of me. My intent isn’t to sway anyone

Life on the Road to Santiago

Tom Cochrane sang, “Life’s like a road that you travel on…” a potent metaphor. Life as a journey is a deep well that’s been drawn from by many. Oliver Goldsmith wrote, “Life is a journey that must be traveled no matter how bad the roads and accommodations.” Tolkien taught us that the road goes ever