Pastor as Vocation, Not Job
As I continue to comb back through the memoir of Eugene Peterson I was reminded of this challenging and important passage in […]
Tag: The Pastor
The Invisible Pastor
Do people ever ask you about what you do? And you can tell from the way they ask the question, or […]
The Messianic Virus
Is it just me, or does it often feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day to do all of the things that we want (or need) to do?
As pastors we can find ourselves sought out for a variety of reasons.
And we can give ourselves to a lot of different ministry-related tasks and to-do’s.
Some of this happens for good reasons, some for the wrong reasons and some due to no decision of our own.
But I find myself wondering how frequently many of us get sidetracked, or even sidelined, by giving too much of our time and attention to the wrong things.
When You’re Not the Star
We live in a rock star culture.
No doubt about it.
And I happen to work at a school that’s known for attracting wanna be rock stars — because we routinely produce them.
But not all of those hopeful, incredibly talented and well-trained students get to see their dreams realized. In fact, it’s a small fraction that do.
And that can be hard,
The Americanization of Congregation
Do you ever find yourself wondering: “how, exactly, did I end up here?” I know that I do. Sometimes the question arises […]
A Story Among Stories
I am a pastor of college students on a university campus.
It’s what God has called me to be — and if you’re reading this — then you have likely experienced a similar call.
And as pastors within this specific context, we often see ourselves as participants in the stories of our students — maybe even shapers of their stories — in some small way.
But if you’re anything like me it can be all too easy, at times, to overlook the ways in which students (and the campus community at large) play a role in the unfolding of our own story.
Pastoring in North America
Today I come offering another excerpt from Eugene Peterson’s memoir. I know that most of us love the work that we have […]
Helping Students to Identify a Call to Pastor
Do you remember when it was that you first realized God was calling you into ministry?
More specifically, do you remember when it was that God was calling you to be a pastor to college students?
My guess is that God started to plant that seed deep within us long before we ever realized it.
We likely experienced different things — events, conversations, moments of clarity or divine appointment — that seemed odd or out of place at the time… but were actually pointing us toward the very thing that we now find ourselves doing.