One thing I love about my job is meeting new people, and subsequently, meeting with people. I love hearing other people’s stories, their ideas and convictions. And, as is fairly obvious, I love to share my own ideas and passions with people too. Every meeting invites the  opportunity to learn something new, something about God, something about humanity, and make connections previously unmade. I find that after a good meeting with people I always have more energy, I feel inspired, and I want to talk about my experience. Today was one of those days. Continue reading →

I was way too tired last night to post about the day, so here’s for Wednesday. I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned it here or not but I’ve been meeting with a woman in hospice for the past few months. I met her back in the summer when she came to visit me in my office. She doesn’t attend our meeting but has a connection to us because she is a part of a one of the groups that uses our building regularly. I was not able to visit her last week because of being really busy with preparations for the memorial service so I was eager to go and see how she was doing yesterday. I never thought that when I came to Camas Friends 8 months ago I would be working with end of life issues so soon. And so part of my pastoral education these last few months has been around death. Continue reading →

This evening we had our elder’s meeting. We have five elders, three women and two men, plus myself and the clerk of the meeting, who usually attends but doesn’t have to. We have a great age range, swath of life experiences, different experiences of God and a panorama of gifts represented. Tonight we planned on discussing the first 10 pages of the Elder’s Handbook from our Yearly Meeting. I for one really enjoyed the discussion. Oh, how I love the finer points of ecclesiology! It was great; we got a little theological, we got personal, and we talked around the questions: what draws you to being an elder? In other words why are you here, why do you want to be an elder? What role do you see yourself fulfilling as an elder in our meeting? It was great to hear our group share how they ended up in leadership, what gifts they have (and don’t have), and the insecurities that come with leadership. Continue reading →

I have a hard time winding down. My mind is usually juggling a number of things all at once: replaying a conversation over here, working on my sermon over there, considering this or that idea for school on this side, and thinking about what needs done at home over on that side. This is probably how it is for everyone, but I often find that the many layers of activity going on in my head become so noisy that it’s hard to actually hear and see what’s happening right in front of me. I literally have a hard time seeing things the more jammed full I get. It’s not unusual to find myself anticipating the next task, the next meeting, the next what-have-you, while I’m in the middle of something else. I really don’t like this about myself and so one of the things I’m working on is paying attention to when I start anticipating something else. Why did I just remove myself from this situation and start focusing on something else? What causes it? How do I slow down and be present with the situation at hand, etc. Continue reading →

As you may have noticed it’s been quite a while since I’ve blogged with much passion, or interest. This isn’t necessarily a problem, things like this come and go, and in the grand scheme of things this blog is inconsequential. Where it becomes a concern for me is that I really enjoy writing and have always felt I process best when I write (now this is different than thinking I’m a good writer, which I do not. I just realize that I processor outwardly more than I do inwardly). This staleness isn’t surprising to me given the fullness of life right now and I don’t need anymore projects, that is unless it’s something that will actually be something I find enjoyable and restful. So I’ve decided to share my life as a minister in daily posts here for the next six months.

Since starting back into ministry this past May, I’ve wrestled with WHAT to write here. Besides not having much time, I’ve wondered what is appropriate to share and what is not. And let’s be frank, no one wants to hear some guy who  has been pastoring for a few months try and give tips on ministry (But then again, I’m the kind of person who won’t read a book about parenting from a person who’s never parented). But this doesn’t mean that I haven’t been working through issues that need to be processed, because I have. Over the last year I’ve been learning how to preach (every week), how to learn and grown into a new community, a town with a history and a small church that’s trying to find its way, how to adopt visions and dreams already in place, what God is calling us to here and now and how to carve out something of a new path that always comes when you add different (and new) people into the mix. Continue reading →

Today I did my second memorial service as the pastor at Camas Friends. The first was just a couple months ago and was for a lady I’d never met. But this time it was different. It was for the husband of one of our long-time attenders. He himself hadn’t been a part of our meeting, but the church had been praying for his health and trying to help his wife with things as needs arose. He was 69 and died from a battle with an aggressive form of Parkinson’s. What was really tragic about it was how fast his health declined (about 4 years since he was diagnosed).

I don’t think I’ll ever get used to funerals/memorial services (it’s probably a good thing, right?). I was able put to good use a minister’s manual I’ve co-opted from the Mennonites (until I can convince some Quaker ministers to write one for us – and I have been trying). The manual itself was one a dear friend, and one of our pastors, from Pasadena Mennonite used regularly (If it’s good enough for Jennifer, it’s good enough for me). It is times like this that that I have very little interest in trying to wing something or pull really off-the-cuff prayers, etc. I think it’s really important to be grounded in something deeper, some practices, Scripture readings and prayers that people have been doing and saying for a long time. Death is serious for those of us in the church. I think there’s comfort in that and I think God is in that too, or at least can be. The part I found really powerful was the “ashes to ashes, dust to dust” said during the committal. Continue reading →