The Eagle & Child

I handed in a paper today, one which has been looming over my semester, bogging me down, for several weeks now. Contrary to what I had expected, the “loominosity” hasn’t lifted.  This might be because the paper was fairly open-ended, so I had to set boundaries to it which seemed somewhat arbitrary to me.  It [...]

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I’m exhausted.  I was up at 6:15 this morning and spoke in our church this morning and then we spent the afternoon with some old acquaintances/new friends.  No Sunday afternoon nap means I probably won’t do any heavy reading tonight.  Instead, maybe a little light reading and some Hebrew translation. I’m reflecting back on my sermon [...]

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…a church [is] a place where the Word of God “is purely preached and heard.”  The good news is that even that puny preacher of little worth can be heard as speaking God’s word; the bad news is that, no matter how good the preacher, a congregation where everyone is daydreaming or asleep is at [...]

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From John Frye: Julie and I intentionally pay attention to church signs that have sayings on them. On Saturday last we saw a church sign: BE AN ORGAN DONOR GIVE YOUR HEART TO JESUS After we rolled our eyes and got over the mental jolt, we asked ourselves what purpose do these signs and sayings [...]

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I was thinking of posting some church-related musings tonight–you know, something meaty, significant.  But I shan’t.  But neither shall I not blog for the rest of May, which was another option. Instead, I alert you, dear reader, that we’re off for a marathon drive to Manitoba tomorrow, where we will do some reconnaissance work on [...]

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I’m sitting at the desk in my (temporary) office at the church.  It’s messy.  I should clean it.  That would also clear out my head, I suspect. I’m trying to work on the sermon for Easter Sunday, but the words aren’t coming.  Words seem to pop in my head just before I put head to [...]

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There have been many lessons that our journey with [our church] has taught me. God is not opposed to his children wandering for periods of time. The Children of Israel wandered. Jesus wandered through the desert and on mountains. Even Paul wandered around Arabia in the years after his conversion – his great dark period [...]

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What I need more than anything these days is time and space to think.  And maybe breathe.  Think and breathe.  Right now is the time that I’d like to claim last year’s birthday present from Dixie: a silent retreat or a weekend at a retreat centre of some kind.  It feels like life is barrelling [...]

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(After I wrote this, I began to think that maybe I’m talking about some ghosts from churches past that are still haunting me, as opposed to responding to a current reality I’m experiencing.  Keep that in mind as you read.) By show of hands, how many of you were offended by the poem I posted [...]

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From nakedpastor: The obsessive concern over songs (how the are sung, how many, instrumentation, music or not, old or new, etc.); messages (length, style, powerpoint, dialogue, conversational, etc.); order (low or high, relaxed or structured, predictable or not, traditional or modern, emergent or submergent, etc.); buildings (owned or rented, house or building, coffee shop or [...]

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