pastor || writer || speaker
The feast day of your birth resembles You, Lord, Because it brings joy to all humanity. Old people and infants alike enjoy your day. Your day is celebrated from generation to generation. Kings and emperors may pass away, And the festivals to commemorate them soon lapse. But your festival will be remembered until the end …
Continue reading "An Advent Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian"
We continued our series on the book of Daniel this past weekend at Eastbrook Church by turning to Daniel's famous prayer in chapter 9. Daniel's prayer takes place in the first year of Cyrus' reign, around 539 BC, and references Jeremiah 25:10-11 in recognizing that the time of the exile is reaching its conclusion. Daniel has been in …
God, if this day my journey end, I thank You first for many a friend, The sturdy and unquestioned piers That run beneath my bridge of years. Next, for the power You’ve given me To view the whole world mirthfully, For laughter, paraclete of pain, Like April suns across the rain. Also that, being not …
Continue reading "Hymn in Contemplation of Sudden Death by Dorothy Sayers"
For the majority of the Christian centuries most pastors have been convinced that prayer is the central and essential act for maintaining the essential shape of the ministry to which they were ordained. With this strong word, Eugene Peterson begins his exploration of the first of the three angles of pastoral ministry: prayer. Peterson suggests …
Continue reading "Recovering Prayer [Working the Angles with Eugene Peterson, part 4]"
In reflecting on the ways Eugene Peterson shaped my pastoral ministry after his passing (see "Remembering Eugene Peterson") on Monday, October 22, I took a look through his writings again. I asked myself a number of questions, amongst them being: what was it about Peterson that helped me so greatly as a pastor? I saw a …
Continue reading "Abandoning Our Pastoral Calling [Working the Angles with Eugene Peterson, part 1]"
Matthew Erickson 