Like many others, I’ve read this article about a pastor stepping away from vocational pastoral ministry due to a number of reasons.

I certainly feel many of the pressures he outlines, yet, there seems to be a question that has not been explored.

restorativefaith.org/post/departure… To what degree is the crisis he experienced due to internalized expectations and assumptions about what pastoral ministry entails, versus the larger institutional expectations and assumptions from his congregation and the larger culture of pastoring in this day and age?

I regularly get asked how to structure a 10-15 minute time of prayer.

For those trying to establish a life of prayer, here’s 3 elements to consider (each time of prayer may or may not include all 3 elements). 1) Enjoy the simple presence of God in silence, without the need to offer words.

2) Listen for God’s word to me in scripture for this particular moment.

3) Thoughtfully express to God the thoughts & feelings of my mind and heart.

Thinking about my journey of preaching over 23 years. My early formative preaching years were in Black churches in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx.

Preaching in these communities was a gift because the preaching moment was communal—in at least 4 ways: Black preaching flourishes inside of a culture of:

affirmation
anticipation
participation
celebration

The Black Church has much to teach regarding the collaborative nature of preaching.

May the Church see politics through the lens of Jesus and not Jesus through the lens of politics. What does this *not* mean?

1. Political indifference.
2. Social callousness.
3. Heaven-centric discipleship.
4. Refusal to listen to my conscience, values, and convictions.

Labor Day is a good time to sharpen our theology of work. Some introductory reflections:

• Scripture reveals God “at work.”

• Work is introduced prior to Sin, not after.

• We are called by God to labor, not just for a paycheck, but to make something beautiful of the world. • The call to labor is not to be demonized. Neither is it to be divinized. It’s not to be a necessary evil, or an idol.

• Our labor is one of the ways we image God. We are called to create, not be reduced to consuming.

8 reasons why our lead pastor transition went well:

1) It was a slow, 4-year thoughtful process. We brought in outside help to help us get clear about lines of authority as @petescazzero’s role shifted.

https://twitter.com/edstetzer/status/1545479066740002816

2) Pete modeled a healthy “letting go,” going to therapy, seeing a spiritual director, & talking to others who have done succession.

3) The elders had me lead the church (behind the scenes) for a year of "testing.”

Preaching in a multiethnic, immigrant congregation (over 75 nations represented) is a great gift, but has its challenges.

Here are some questions I think thru in my prep… 1) Is the language I'm using clear & accessible to all?

English is not the primary language for a good percentage of our church. I preach first and foremost to be understood.

Jesus asking Peter “do you love me?” three times after the resurrection is one of the most beautiful acts of restoration.

The 3 questions cancel out Peter’s 3 denials & Jesus sends him on his way.

Eastertide is a season where we are invited to confess again our love for Jesus. Like Peter, I’ve denied Jesus plenty of times. I have—in word and in deed—distanced myself from his love and teachings. I have denied him through prayerlessness, apathy towards the poor, & clinging to the words of others instead of his. Like Peter, I am filled w/contradictions.

THREAD🧵

One of the most unfortunate realities of our culture is how easily we move from one thing to the next. In a matter of days or even hours, our focus & attn is diverted w/surprising speed. Our society has been conditioned to live in a “perpetual state of inattention.” This is exactly why the season of Eastertide is important for the Church. For centuries, many in the Church have recognized that Easter is not a one day event that we anticipate, and then just like that, vanishes.

A Holy Thursday reflection:

Jesus washes our feet. He stoops down to touch one of the most blatantly broken areas of our body. Our feet often reveal the struggle of the journey we’ve lived. They bear the wounds of ill-fitting footwear, and of a long, arduous meandering through life. Our feet often reveal the weight we’ve been carrying; the pain we’ve been holding; they reveal the place we are most vulnerable.

[THREAD] Ever wonder why we wave Palms in church on Palm Sunday? Here’s some historical and theological perspective: The Palms we wave and the “Hosannas” we shout speak to our real human desire for liberation but also our human propensity to control the means of salvation.

Labor Day is a good time to sharpen our theology of work. Some introductory reflections:

• Scripture reveals God “at work.”

• Work is introduced prior to Sin, not after.

• We are called by God to labor, not just for a paycheck, but to make something beautiful of the world. • The call to labor is not to be demonized. Neither is it to be divinized. It’s not to be a necessary evil, or an idol.

• Our labor is one of the ways we image God. We are called to create, not be reduced to consuming.

In 2020, many pastors denounced racism from the pulpit for the first time.

But they didn’t follow up with any other discipleship strategy. They thought the demon of racism was cast out, but have found many more demons showing up in 2021. To use a biblical metaphor from Jesus, you can sweep clean your church by momentarily denouncing racism, but if you don’t fill it with the right gospel values, perspectives, and practices, soon enough, some other demons will come—and the last will be worst than the first.

Here a thread of my #Loki preaching points over the course of this first season.

Absolutely loved it.

For over 15 years I’ve carefully manuscripted my sermons. Each one is 2-3k words in length.

I have not regretted this practice one bit. Seeing this has generated some conversation, let me say a few more things:

1. I carefully manuscript sermons because I believe the Spirit is guiding me to craft words just as much as the Spirit guides me to communicate them.

Ever wonder why we wave Palms in church on Palm Sunday? Here’s some historical and theological perspectives: The Palms we wave and the “Hosannas” we shout speak to our real human desire for liberation but also our human propensity to control the means of salvation.

Like many, I was taught the ACTS model of prayer (adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication). While it’s a good framework the model left me exhausted!

This kind of prayer was marked by verbosity and was usually one-sided.

But then I started reading the Desert Fathers. The way of the desert gave me permission to “be still and know that he is God.”

The more familiar you are with someone the easier it is to be silent in their presence.

Our inability to be silent with God just might reveal how unfamiliar we are with God.

Richard Rohr on liberals and conservatives.

Oh my. My quick, feeble attempt at throwing Moderates into this conversation. 😁

The exhausting, but important work pastors have is helping the people we lead move beyond enmeshment w/the political figures they support.

People are so enmeshed that it’s hard to distinguish political figures from themselves.

The domino effect of enmeshment looks like this: To critique the President (or any political leader) it to critique the party I align with.

To critique the party is to critique the values I hold dear.

To critique the values I hold dear is to critique my vision of a flourishing world...

I have found that one of the most important pastoral tasks that must be regularly repeated in pursuing racial justice is defining and redefining these 2 words:

• gospel
• racism

If we get these two words wrong, everything else is bound to fail. My go to definition of the gospel:

The gospel is the good news that God’s kingdom has come near in Jesus Christ, and through his life, death, resurrection, and ascension, the powers of sin and death no longer have the last word.

The Our Father prayer is a great framework to think through goals and such for the year. Here are some questions to work thru:

Our Father (abba) in heaven - How can I grow in relating to God with the intimacy that "Abba" connotes? Hallowed be your Name - In which areas am I called to reject the hallowing of my own name (needing approval, recognition, an unhealthy need to be seen as special)?