Personal

Downward Mobility Gets Personal

Leave a Comment / Essential Tenets of the Reformed Faith, Fellowship of Presbyterians, Lent, PCUSA, Personal, Theological Reflection, Women in Ministry / By /

Ash Wednesday is as good a day as any to reflect on what God is doing in one’s life, and anything that tends toward “examination of conscience” is particularly fitting during Lent. Lent for some is seen as a period of self-imposed “downward mobility” during which one denies oneself in order to follow Christ. This concept is taking on new meaning for me, as I examine the contours of my life and Christian service with an eye to reshaping my ministry life.  Since it has been awhile since my last blog, and inertia must be overcome, today I am going […]

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BC and AC: A Shock to the System

3 Comments / Leadership and Spirituality, PCUSA, Personal, Theological Reflection / By /

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! After a two-month hiatus from blogging, I am ready for the daily discipline again. I stopped out for three main reasons:  Firstly, a writing/editing project came along and its due date was December 21. Now that it is finished, my readers will be hearing about it in future posts, because it has everything to do with Bringing the Word to Life and the Presbyterian Church. But I’ll keep you in suspense two more days on its themes. Secondly, I found myself speechless. I know this is hard to believe, but I felt “silenced,” not

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Twenty-five Years of Pastoral Ministry

7 Comments / PCUSA, Personal / By /

All Saints Day Today is the twenty-fifth anniversary of my ordination as a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). I have assigned to this day a lot of personal significance and indulged in some reflection about my call in life and ministry. This summer my beloved and I celebrated 37 years of marriage. The question has come up in both contexts—marriage and ministry—whether I have felt the years fly by or not. Joyfully, in regards to our marriage I can honestly say the years have flown by with only a couple rough periods. But in regards

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Is Our Teaching Method Watering Down Our Doctrine?

3 Comments / Essential Tenets of the Reformed Faith, Fellowship of Presbyterians, It All Started in the Garden, Marriage Curriculum, PCUSA, Personal, Teaching / By /

October has turned out to be an intense month of preparations, and my blog has gotten short shrift as a result. Aside from preaching every Sunday this month (an unusual schedule in my current context), I am giving a series of theological lectures on the topic “It All Started in the Garden: Theological Themes Arising Out of Genesis 1-3” and presenting three talks at the California Wee Kirk Conference next week (a plenary address, a sermon, and a seminar—all on different topics). Behind-the-scenes, I have been working with a colleague on a study guide for ECO’s “Essential Tenets” (ET) paper,

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Good Days and Bad Days

7 Comments / Food, It All Started in the Garden, Leadership and Spirituality, Personal, Theological Reflection / By /

This morning a Facebook friend posted his status: “Today is a good day.” Having just come off a bad day myself, the simplicity of his statement caught my attention and begged for reflection. Sunday for me was the sort of day Judith Viorst described in her class children’s book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Well, I had one. Two events cast their deep shadows on this week’s Sabbath. The first occurred during worship and the second at home late in the day. On this particular week, my participation in worship was musical. The choir director

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Exegetical Method Applied to the Topic of Marriage: Step 1

11 Comments / Marriage Definition, Personal, Teaching / By /

As my thoughts turn back to marriage, I would like to honor my parents who were married 43 years until my dad died suddenly of a brain hemorrhage in 1996. Today would have been their 60th wedding anniversary. In the past few days I have demonstrated an exegetical method using the topic of women in leadership, to answer a question that comes up from time to time and to set the stage for applying the same method to the topic of marriage. This is the biblical work we must do to set the foundation for a course on marriage. Today,

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Reflections at Fuller Seminary’s Commencement

3 Comments / Personal, Teaching / By /

Below is the text of my three-minute speech to the Fuller graduating Class of 2012 and their families and friends, on Saturday, June 9, 2012, at Lake Avenue Congregational Church. I was chosen to be one of four student speakers, and the task was “to give a snapshot of what you are doing now in ministry, and how Fuller helped prepare you.” Surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses and professors, I have a fire in my belly for teaching. My thirty-five years of learning at Fuller has taught me that the world and the church need more and

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Rainbows and Floods

1 Comment / 2012th General Assembly (Pittsburgh), Leadership and Spirituality, PCUSA, Personal, Spiritual Disciplines, Theological Reflection / By /

The few fans of this blog have perhaps noted my silence the last few days. Can it be true that Mary Naegeli is speechless, or has nothing to say? Au contraire, mes amis, the problem is the opposite! There is so much to say, so much to digest, so much to ponder, that one hardly knows where to begin. On the other side of my mind is the desperate need for some perspective, some peace and quiet, some reflection on the meaning of this moment in the life of the PCUSA. And then the rainbow appeared. This morning, as I

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Crazy Week: Redefinition of “Tomorrow”

Leave a Comment / EPC, Essential Tenets of the Reformed Faith, PCUSA, Personal / By /

Since writing the post comparing ECO and EPC the other day, I have had a flood of comments and over 800 hits, so apparently this subject is of interest! Meanwhile, my “day job” has been intensely demanding this week. I am working on a post that compares the essential tenets of the EPC and the Book of Confessions and hope to have it done tomorrow. For now, though, the brain is spent and it’s time to call it quits for the day. Since I addressed the topic of  Sabbath last Sunday, I kinda feel like I should practice what I

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Forced Perspective

Leave a Comment / Fellowship of Presbyterians, PCUSA, Personal / By /

Nothing like a good vacation to clear the head and gain perspective. After two-plus weeks in New Zealand with our daughter, the sensation coming home is of trying to jump on a fast-moving train. An accumulated average of forty emails a day, plus the many news reports and blogs to catch up on, will help me discern what happened in the PCUSA while I was gone.  As I re-enter the normal Presbyterian life after two weeks of jubilee, I am grateful for the hard work, faithful standing, and Spirit-led movement of God’s people during this time. Perspective Number 1: New

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