Mini Sabbatical/ "Reading Week"

During the week of Feb. 3 - 9th I did a "Reading Week" tiny sabbatical to catch up on the pile of reading that has been building up over the last few months. I went to a variety of different place to read, including Cross Roads Camp, the local library, and Princeton Seminary Library. What a fun week it was to absorb all this wisdom. I didn't pick any particular theme, but it seems that the theme picked me: all of these books really emphasized the power of relationship - with people we love (and have lost), with people who are different from us, between us, God, and our money, and with ourselves. 

The God who Sees: Immigrants, the Bible, and the Journey to Belong by Karen Gonzales5 stars. This book is also part memoir, part theological grounding and reminder that both the tenants of our belief and our holy scriptures calls us to see the image of God in immigrants. Though the author herself is from Guatemala, this book feels so relevant in the midst of the ELCA sanctuary conversations, the travel bans, and the recent report of the murders of people deported to El Salvador. This book gives a human face and human stories to a complex issues, and challenges us to fulfill our call as followers of Jesus to see what God sees - our beloved humanity in all people.

 Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others by Barbara Brown Taylor5 stars. This book really does live up to the hype. Loved it. As a pastor I too often get stuck in a Lutheran silo, so it's really nice to get any perspective outside of that.... It also resonated in a lot of my cross-cultural experiences. I especially appreciated the chapters about Jewish faith and Islamic faith.

 Love Big: The Power of Revolutionary Relationships to Change the World, by Rozella Haydee White5 stars. Part memoir, part call to action, this book was both a quick read but a deep one, to the point and complex, deeply Lutheran without some of that insider language that creeps in, inspirational and challenging. So much of this book feels alive and relevant it's hard to pick one thing. I appreciated her thoughts on how we search for love in the wrong places, and also her experiences working for and walking away from the ELCA machinations. 

From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death, 

by Caitlyn DoughtyFive stars. Though Doughty never says much about faith or pastors, I appreciate her honest take on death and the importance of ritual and making meaning around it. Pastors are "death professionals" too, and anything we can do to help make meaning and normalize grief helps us be better at pastoral care. This trip around the world shows that it's not about WHAT we do as we honor our loved ones, it's that we should remember with intention and love, and not avoid the conversation. PS, do you have a death plan yet? 

Contagious Generosity: Creating a Culture of Giving in your Church, by Chris Willard and Jim Sheppard  I would give this one 3.5 stars. It has some GREAT insight about shifting congregational cultures, developing tools and capacities, and some necessary come-to-Jesus advice. I will probably use it in my congregation. However.... ALL the quotes and ALL the examples were from male pastors in multi-pastor congregations (I have never heard of a stewardship pastor!) The theology is evangelism- adjacent. There's also a lot of references to the crash of '08. If the author would make a new addition just without all the dudes, I'd give it 4 or 4.5. A fast but good read (just skip all the dudes).

"Come Thou Font of Every Blessing" verse according to pics at Cross Roads Camp

Here I raise my Ebenezer....

Hither by thy help I've come.

And I hope by thy good pleasure...

Safely to arrive at home.

Pastor Blessings/Perks

One of the perks of living on the East Coast is the easy access to the ocean (unless you are in the middle of a hurricane. Then it is pretty horrible). Even better are generous members of our congregations who own rental homes minutes from the beach. A family from Beau's congregation owns a home they rent in the summer in Brigantine, NJ, and offered to let us stay in it when we want to, off-season of course. We took them up on their generous offer two weeks ago. The previous weekend we spent apart, me at the synod HS Winter Youth Assembly and he at camp Konionia in Upstate NY for a youth weekend. So we decided it would be a good time to get away! It was also very good to get away from the business of our lives (it IS Lent). We had both been crazy busy for the last few weeks that it was so nice to get away together! Brigantine is a actually an island directly north of Atlantic City. It's very peaceful, especially off-season, and we found a great pub with awesome food and live music, and a nice bagel shop. It sustained some damage from the storm, mostly homes, but it seems most business are still running. It was rather rainy and overcast, but it was still lovely.

Retreats I & II

"Day unto day uttereth speech. The clouds change. The seasons pass over our woods and fields in their slow and regular progression, and time is gone before you are aware of it." Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey Mountain.

I've been gone on two retreats this week. The first was a congregational retreat for members of Resurrection up at a Lutheran camp in Upstate New York called Koinonia. The weather was beautiful, and the local was stunning and remote. Too bad it took us almost four hours of winding roads to get there... I felt very ill on the way up and was very glad when we finally arrived. The retreat center was great and the staff was so friendly, and the food was very good! It was also really fun to get to know better some of the members of Resurrection. I got to know two of the families with young kids who are pretty close to our age. And their kids are so cute! Beau lead a Bible study that everyone loved, and on Sunday morning I busted out the ol' guitar and strummed it up. It was pretty fun. 

The second retreat was a Book of Faith retreat lead by Bishop Riley on the Gospel of Mark, since that is the gospel of the upcoming church year. This time we were at Princeton Seminary, which is also a beautiful local, though less remote. The seminary has all these old stone buildings that are very lovely. Various pastors from around the synod are supposed to attend one of these retreats, and there was about ten of us from around the synod. It was neat to get to know other pastors not just in our own cluster. We heard the entirety of Mark preformed on video and discussed each chapter. Mark is a really fascinating gospel when heard all at once - well, over the course of 24 hours. We could really hear the immediacy of the action and the mounting frustration of Jesus with his disciples. I though that, especially at the beginning, Mark seemed to be written like someone was following Jesus around and tweeting what was happening. Later, some of the longer stories are like blog posts.

And now we are right on the heels of Thanksgiving. Though we can't  make in anywhere to see family, we have already been invited to many gatherings. Traffic is already getting very bad, especially near any shopping areas. I think I'm going to try to avoid driving except for things like grocery shopping and going to church/work for the month of December. We'll see how that goes. :)