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Happy Birthday to Me!

4 Comments / It All Started in the Garden, Leadership and Spirituality, Lung Cancer, Personal, Uncategorized / By /

Today is my birthday, and given the bout with the Beast this past year, one worth celebrating with gusto! We are having a few friends over to share dinner and birthday cake, and if family tradition prevails, I am entitled to special treatment all day. Actually, maybe all week—we try to stretch our luck as far as we can. Last year at this time, our kids were putting on for us a joint celebration of our milestone 60th birthday. Relatives and friends came from all over and made us feel very loved, putting us at the center of attention. Those […]

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Implications of Christ’s Ascension—Part II

Leave a Comment / Great Commission (Mt 28), PCUSA, Personal, The Missional Church, The Pastoral Call / By /

We left off yesterday in the story of Jesus’ post-resurrection, pre-ascension period with just a glimpse of the magnitude of the commission he was imparting to his disciples. The Savior, loved and followed, was patiently instructing them on the basics of his identity, his purpose in coming, the relational implications of his crucifixion (redemption and forgiveness), and the importance of making him known throughout the world. Peter in particular was singled out to “feed my sheep,” (John 21:15-19), but all were sent to become “fishers of [people]” (Matthew 4:19). Regardless of the particulars, the disciples heard their commission as a

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Ascension Thursday—Part I

1 Comment / Great Commission (Mt 28), Personal, The Missional Church, The Pastoral Call / By /

I am feeling particularly grateful for the discipline of writing this blog, mostly because I have failed to produce anything in the last week and am reminded of how it keeps me centered if I do. The good news is that my energy level is near normal and I have been busy re-entering my world, including going back to active duty (part time) at the church I have served. No excuses here, just an observation that the writer’s life is a lot harder to structure than you might think! Life happens, people call, requests come in, and whoosh! There goes

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Casting a Wider Net

2 Comments / Kenya & Uganda, PCUSA, Personal, The Missional Church, The Pastoral Call / By /

Ministry transitions are sometimes difficult to navigate. There is always the pesky need to “make a living” while following Jesus into the unknown. In the hour-long Q & A with almost 200 Ugandan pastors last August, one of the dominant themes was financial support for the pastors who desired to work in the ministry full-time. They were frustrated because the overwhelming demands of pastoral care and the need to work a job that would pay their living expenses clashed. The deep poverty of their parishioners—a pastoral care issue in its own right—meant that the community did not have the funds

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My SHAPE: Nothing Is Wasted

9 Comments / Lung Cancer, PCUSA, Personal, SHAPE for Ministry, Teaching, The Pastoral Call / By /

As [Jesus] walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him. (Matthew 4:18-22) When Jesus

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My SHAPE: Pulling It All Together

2 Comments / Lung Cancer, PCUSA, Personal, SHAPE for Ministry, The Pastoral Call / By /

Now begins the process of synthesizing the various discoveries of my SHAPE. To review: S—Spiritual Gifts. Teaching is dominant among my gifts, with Leadership and Prophecy right behind. You could probably account for the results of and response to my singing and writing abilities as a God-thing, too; so add Creative Communication to the list. H—Heart. I am particularly drawn to people who have questions, who are making big decisions, who are trying to align their lives with God as revealed in the Scriptures. A—Abilities. I can express myself clearly through speaking, singing, and writing; I am an accomplished cook.

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My SHAPE: E—Experience in Ministry

1 Comment / Leadership and Spirituality, Lung Cancer, PCUSA, Personal, SHAPE for Ministry, Teaching, The Pastoral Call / By /

It’s an interesting thing about experience and ministry. Experience is not required to do something or to be someone useful to the Kingdom of God. There are many entry-level positions in God’s economy. But if one has had experience in ministry settings, one has some clues as to one’s gifts and calling. I remember my very first mission trip, a month-long excursion to Guatemala after its 1976 catastrophic earthquake. Based on that experience—riding a school bus from the Bay Area the entire length of Mexico into Guatemala, mixing cement and setting reinforced concrete brick, cleaning bathrooms, and speaking with the

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My SHAPE: P—Personality

2 Comments / Leadership and Spirituality, Personal, SHAPE for Ministry, The Pastoral Call / By /

When our second daughter was born, I was blown away by how different she was from her older sister, on the first day! I guess I had held the view that “a baby is a baby,” until Darling Daughter A exhibited her own response to the world in contrast to Darling Daughter 1. It’s a good thing I could see the difference between them, because I was enabled to receive each girl on her own terms and enjoy her uniqueness. Such an appreciation releases a mom from the temptation to treat her children exactly alike, which I think was a

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What Is My SHAPE: H—Heart and A—Abilities

2 Comments / Leadership and Spirituality, Personal, SHAPE for Ministry, The Pastoral Call / By /

As a way of discerning God’s call upon my life after sitting on the bench through a bout of lung cancer, I am continuing an assessment of my SHAPE for ministry. In my last post I listed my S—spiritual gifts. Many assessments stop there, but God provides pointers to his call in other aspects of our lives, too. Two people with the same spiritual gift(s) can express their Christian discipleship in very different ways, because of how they are wired emotionally, in their personality, or through the experiences that have shaped them and developed their abilities. The Saddleback SHAPE model

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Getting in SHAPE

1 Comment / Leadership and Spirituality, Lung Cancer, Personal, Spiritual Disciplines, Teaching, The Pastoral Call / By /

This morning I will be meeting my personal trainer at the gym for the first time in over six months. Not with a little fear and trepidation, I will submit to thirty minutes of exercises, addressing each muscle group and testing my capabilities. What I know is this: I am out of shape. Cancer-drug-related weight gain has plagued me since the first of the year, my overall strength has diminished, and stamina is completely redefined by pulmonary limitations at the moment. Yes, it sounds pretty pitiful for one who used to be able to run the paces and maintain a

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