An article I recently wrote was published this week at Preaching Today entitled "Spiritual Formed Preachers: How to bring spiritual formation into your entire sermon process." This goal has been one of the driving forces in my preaching but sometimes has been an elusive aim. I tried to put some of my thoughts into this …
Metaphors for Ministry: Hitting ‘The Road’ with Cormac McCarthy
An article I wrote during the past year was published this week at Preaching Today. It draws from one of my favorite novels of all time, Cormac McCarthy's The Road. If you know McCarthy's writing, you may know it is very rough around the edges. While The Road is also rough around the edges there …
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Calling for Apocalyptic Pastors: a word from Eugene Peterson
Eugene Peterson, in the midst of writing on four models of pastoral ministry, offers one he says he has always aimed to be like: the apocalyptic pastor. It is a wild phrase but a needful word for us today as pastors in the North American church. May we have ears to hear. American religion is …
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A Litany for Pastors based on Matthew 23
I wrote this litany for those who are in ministry after reading Jesus' sharp rebuke of the Pharisees and teachers of the law as recorded in Matthew 23. Every one of us in ministry struggles to live our calling faithfully, yet we also must let the Holy Spirit regularly search us and lead us to …
The Pastoral Work of Community-Building: Esther [Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work by Eugene Peterson, part 6]
“For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14) In the fifth and final section of Eugene …
Matthew Erickson 