Many seminaries and denominations require some level of psychological testing and evaluation for people who want to become pastors. I’m on board with the concept—the last thing we want is a bunch of narcissists in charge of churches. But I do question the effectiveness of some of these evaluations. The two things I remember from… Read More
Saturday Prayer: Hosanna! Save Us
Hosanna! Save us, O God! From hasty palm waving and distracted worship; from the Holy Week panic about to set in; from the onslaught of emails and plastic eggs; from the special music to arrange and the brunch casseroles to bake; from the late nights, the restless sleeps, the too-early mornings. Save us, O God,… Read More
Bullet Journals for Pastors
Bullet journals are really trending right now. Actually, the fact that I just started one probably means they were really trending two years ago. I’m a little slow on the trends. But I have one now! If you, like me, want to start a bullet journal, then you, like me, will type “how to start… Read More
Preacher Party: Wilderness of Judea Edition
Welcome to the second Sunday in the season of Advent! Today’s Gospel lesson brings us the story of John the Baptist, baptizing believers as they confessed their sins, shouting accusations at the Pharisees and Sadducees, and prophesying the coming of the Messiah. With whom do you relate most closely this week – John, Jesus, Pharisees… Read More
Wits-Ends-Day: Pastoral Job Descriptions
I am currently experiencing a settled stage of my life—which I find slightly unnerving but mostly good. I do, however, have several friends discerning a call. (In case you don’t speak church-ese, that means they are looking for a new pastor gig.) So I’ve been hearing about interviews and looking at pastoral job descriptions. I… Read More
The Pastoral is Political – The _Pastor_ Is Political
In the US, we just had “mid term elections,” where we don’t have an election for president but we do elect the entire lower house of our legislature (House of Representatives) and roughly one third of our upper house (Senate), as well as many state, county/parish, township, city, and other positions. So when I say… Read More
Wits-Ends-Day: New & Improved Christmas Hymns
One of the downsides of a theological education (and/or an overactive theological imagination) is an inability to sing some favorite old hymns with naive gusto. During this Christmas season in particular, we simply know too much about the biblical story (and the reality of childbirth and babies in general) to fully believe all of the… Read More
