What is a Vineyard Pastor? the final episode

I’ve been writing a short series of posts as I think through my answer to the question to which I’ve been asked to reply. Some people are verbal processors, I’m an internal processor and writing is how I figure out what I’m thinking. Pastors in my denomination have been asked to answer a question: “What

What is a Vineyard Pastor? pt 5

“What should a Vineyard pastor be, know, and do?” This is the question I’ve been asked to think about and even offer my response to – it’s homework from my denomination – and I’m writing this out loud because that’s how I think – I write. I’m publishing what I’m thinking because I’m interested in

What is a Vineyard Pastor, pt 4.

My denomination has asked us to spend time contemplating a question that, surprisingly, we may not have spent much time on until now, almost 4 decades into our existence. “What should a Vineyard pastor be, know, and do?” Over my last few posts I’ve been thinking out loud about how we might answer this question.

What Is A Vineyard Pastor? Pt 3

My denomination has recently asked us to give some time and thought to an important question as we approach a significant moment in our story together. Here’s what they’ve written: “What should a Vineyard pastor be, know, and do?” is the central question as we discern what ordination means for the Vineyard. We hope every Vineyard

What is a Vineyard Pastor? pt 2

Part two Welcome to the magical mystery tour through the things I’m contemplating these days at the invitation of my denomination to get all introspecty and curious about two big questions: What is a Vineyard Church? And What is a Vineyard pastor? As I said in part one, it occurred to me that our own

What’s a Vineyard Pastor?

part one My denomination is getting all introspecty and I’m here for it. What we’ve been asked to have on our collective minds and be ready to discuss with the rest of the class is… What’s a Vineyard Church and what’s a Vineyard pastor? John Wimber was the man we credit with turning a handful

But Seriously, What Does A Pastor Do?

As my denomination asks this question of ourselves, I’m thinking about how pastors find out the answer to the question. We pastors are the punchline of the joke about only working one day a week. And to add to our confusion, we know pastors who spend a lot of time and money on golf courses

What Is A Pastor?

Recently my denomination announced that we are starting a process of discernment together about the practice of ordination and its place in our denomination. A couple questions were posed for us to think about and discuss together and it all started me thinking about something I wrote almost a decade ago. As a pastor I

Pastoring Now

Recently we had a conversation at our church about the challenges we are facing – the royal “We” of the big “C” Church. Our jumping off point was a statement Jesus makes in the Gospel of John, chapter 5: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only

The Church as Other

Eugene Peterson once wrote a kind, personal response to a letter I had written to him, early in my story of being a pastor, and encouraged me to remember that my primary role in this life was to be subversive. I’m here to be other. That the Church and all who make her up are