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The art of getting lost

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We just moved to a new city, and even with Google Maps and Waze I'm finding myself lost pretty regularly. As a pastor, I realize that there are some great spiritual components to getting lost. Think about all the stories in the Bible of people who neededto lose their way: the Israelites had to get lost in the wilderness before they were able to enter the promised land, Jonah had to get lost in the belly of a fish before he could follow God's commands and Jesus had to go get lost in the wilderness before he began his ministry (not to mention the stories about God's tendency to pick people up and whisk them off to unknown locations — Elijah, Ezekiel, Philip and John of Patmos for example). I'm not saying that God is miraculously sabotaging GPS satellites to stop me from getting where I'm going, but getting lost has, in fact, been a reminder to me that not everything in life is about getting from point A to point B. And in a new place, that's good news. On a very practical level, it … [Read more...]

Tagged With: New year

An ordinary ordination

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This week we asked our bloggers to reflect on their ordinations.  Here are their blogs. I’ve wanted to be a pastor since I was a kid. That’s not true for a large number of people who become ordained as Ministers of Word and Sacrament, but I knew about my calling when I was taking those career exams they made us take in high school and middle school. I remember the test it spitting back out a number of different career choices, most of which didn’t appeal to me. And, to be honest, I don’t remember at this point if it even listed “pastor” as one of the options, but the exam definitely got me thinking. I spent the next eight years exploring and educating myself and making sure of things, but as soon as I got out of college I entered seminary. Getting ordained as a Minister of Word and Sacrament (or, as they did it “back in my day” in 2012, as a teaching elder) defines the course of your life. It’s true that it sets you apart to a special kind of service, but I know that for a lot of … [Read more...]

Tagged With: ordination reflections

What can 1870 teach a 2018 minister?

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This month we asked our bloggers about how they view the role of pastor, how they understand their pastoral identity, or to share what a pastor really does all week.  Here's how they responded.   When I daydream, it’s almost always about the future – flying cars, spacecraft, jetpacks and the little pieces of gum that make you feel like you ate a three-course meal from “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” Sometimes, though, I get swept in the other direction – especially when it comes to the history of the local church. The church I currently serve, Langcliffe Presbyterian Church in Avoca, Pennsylvania, was established in 1870, which is the same year its presbytery (Presbytery of Lackawanna) started. It’s a young church by many standards, including the standards of the First Presbyterian Church of Wilkes-Barre down the road, which was established in 1772 (as a Congregationalist church), and the other Congregationalist, Baptist, Roman Catholic and still other … [Read more...]

Tagged With: Role of pastor

On being a young leader

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“There is something ludicrous about a callow young fool like myself standing up to preach a sermon to these good folks.” Thus begins Reinhold Niebuhr’s “Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic,” with his first journal entry from 1915. After one sermon on bearing crosses, a woman asked him whether he had “borne many crosses” in his young life. He relates that many just couldn’t understand how someone that young could be a pastor — they expected a little more wisdom from the role. I completely understand where Niebuhr is coming from in this entry. I began ministry straight out of seminary, serving a church where I had preached during my senior year. It might not sound like a second year grad student is very young to be a pastor if you’re coming from some other denominations, but we’re not used to 24-year-old pastors in the Presbyterian Church. What does a 24-year-old pastor have to offer to a church full of people two or three times their age? Certainly not experience or wisdom, … [Read more...]

Tagged With: leadership

Finding God at the beach

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As a pastor, much of my time is spent trying to get in touch with God. I think often of the concept of “thin places” — the idea that some places are more conducive than others to experiencing God. It’s almost as if heaven is right in front of you in these places: just push aside the veil and there God will be, plain as day. I often wish my study at the church was thinner than it is. I do get to spend a good amount of time in prayer, meditation, worship and (of course) study while I’m there, but often I need to get out of those four walls to better connect with God. I’m glad it’s summer right now because it’s a lot easier to get out and do something when the sidewalks aren’t covered in ice. And so, I find myself from time to time searching for thin places. I could find my thin place on a hike in the woods, or sitting in a park, or being wherever there happens to be a lazy cat in a sunbeam, or just walking along the sidewalks right outside the church. Perhaps the easiest way for me … [Read more...]

The correct way to pray

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My all-time favorite writing on the subject of prayer is a little article by Wayne Zunkel titled “The posture of the right thumb during opening prayers in morning services during January in leap years” (published in 1956 in Brethren Life and Thought). It begins as follows: “This is a question of profound importance and constant discussion and perplexity among ministers.” This 1,600-word article gives four possible postures: downward, upward, straight forward and the ubiquitous “crossed thumbs.” I found this great piece of satire while I was researching ways to incorporate physicality into prayer, and beyond offering a short break in study, it reminded me to not take my research (or myself) too seriously. There I was, a graduate of an esteemed Presbyterian theological seminary with a degree that declared me a “master of divinity,” trying to breathe new life into the practice of prayer. My real problem was that I had lost sight of what prayer is, or what it ought to be. For me, the … [Read more...]

Tagged With: prayer

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