Category: The Pastorate

  • Writing the Ending Is Always Hard

    One of the things I struggle with the most are endings. Whether it is writing endings, envisioning the ending of a project, or saying goodbye. I struggle with exit strategies. I have no problem getting started. I love a good opening story. A hearty laugh or a compelling metaphor. I set goals like a maniac. But when…

  • Holding Tension in Community

    There are many “tensions” or differences that we run into when building and existing within community. A faith community is no different. I think Camas Friends Church excels at doing this kind of work together. Here are some of the things I have learned from the way this meeting does community with each other.

  • In the Deep End With Grief: Thoughts On Pastoral Care to Those Hurting Most 

    In the Deep End With Grief: Thoughts On Pastoral Care to Those Hurting Most 

    As the previous year comes to a close, I’m reposting some articles from 2014 I wrote elsewhere on the web. This is a post I wrote about grief that originally posted on the blog Antioch Session. I find it hard to carry the weight of my own pain, let alone the weight of another. I…

  • Nancy Duarte on Effective Communication

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfQF3DXG-S4&w=640&h=360]

  • Thinking Quakers, Money and Stewardship

    Thinking Quakers, Money and Stewardship

    A couple months back I started feeling the tug to wrestle with the topic of money in the church. As a preacher, I’ve largely avoided the topic like the plague. These are the kinds of things I nightmares about. I was a budding and impressionable young man when PTL when bankrupt and Jim Baker headed…