pastor || writer || speaker
While preparing for a retreat with Eastbrook Church's student ministry, I came across this excerpt from Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard that hit home to me. Given some of my recent reflections on the nature of pastoral leadership in North America (see "Five Themes of Resilient Ministry" and "Five Steps for Overcoming the Dark …
Continue reading "Transformation into Christlikeness is Possible: Dallas Willard"
This past weekend in my message, "Friend of Sinners," I mentioned an article by J. I. Packer that I read many years ago in which he talks about the church as a hospital for sinners. In searching for it, I discovered that the article was actually an excerpt from Packer's book, A Quest for Godliness. I found …
After many of my preaching series, I enjoy sharing a bibliography that I used to help prepare for that series. Sometimes they are wide-ranging, such as the series on the life of Joseph, while at other times they are more clearly bounded by one specific topic, such as the series on prayer. Here is the resource bibliography …
Spiritual direction is difficult. Pastoral wisdom is not available on prescription. Every person who comes to a pastor with a heart full of shapeless longings and a head full of badgering questions is complex in a new way. There are no fail-proof formulae (179). Eugene Peterson brings this book, Working the Angles, to conclusion with attention …
Continue reading "Practicing Spiritual Direction [Working the Angles with Eugene Peterson, part 11]"
There is a saying among physicians that the doctor who is his own doctor has a fool for a doctor. It means, as I understand it, that the care of the body is a complex business and requires cool, detached judgment....If those entrusted with the care of the body cannot be entrusted to look after …
Continue reading "Getting a Spiritual Director [Working the Angles with Eugene Peterson, part 10]"
Matthew Erickson 