One of the greatest privileges of my life was to have served as a pastor to Mrs. Helen. The saintliest of widows, Helen was always gentle in spirit, encouraging, and thoughtful towards others, even as she ever so slightly bristled at the kids running through the aisles of our small church plant in South Texas….
The Power of the Sermon Checklist: Why You Need One, and How to Make Your Own
In his best-selling book The Checklist Manifesto, surgeon Atul Gawande makes the compelling case that the best way to ensure quality is something simple, old-fashioned, and overlooked: the checklist. In fact, he argues, we need the checklist more than ever, because today, information is so abundant and complex, it overwhelms our ability to process. To ensure…
Writing as Ministry
I personally got into new media when I built my first church website in 1997. Using HTML and a dial-up connection, I inserted a ton of hyperlinks and made tables to frame it all up. It had some killer clipart. When blogging came around I tried my hand at that in 2002 through a blog called “Bull…
My Lenten Experience
Note: I wrote this a few years back, reposting it for this year. As always, thanks for reading. My Journey You aren’t supposed to talk about what you are doing for Lent. Don’t “let your right hand know what your left hand is doing” and “don’t be like the Pharisees.” But people often ask me…
What They Don’t Teach You In Seminary, Part 3: Practicing Sabbath
During my seminary years, teaching the theology of Sabbath was not scarce. In Old Testament courses, pastoral theology courses, and chapel services, I heard some excellent theological thinking on the Sabbath. I rarely saw sabbath practiced in community. The distance between thought and practice can become quite a chasm. Good ideas about the Sabbath can…
What They Don’t Teach You in Seminary, Part 2: Personal Repentance
by Jack King ‘There is no theology apart from experience; it is necessary to change, to become a new man.’ –Vladmir Lossky ‘If you are a theologian, you truly pray; if you truly pray you are a theologian.’—Evagrius Ponticus If you visit any seminary website, schools will speak about the importance of spiritual life for…
Left Behind?
Are we going to be raptured away someday? Is that an actual Christian belief? Hollywood says yes…or at least they think it might make a good action story. Anglican Pastor writer Thomas McKenzie has addressed these questions in a movie review of Left Behind. Fr Thomas has reviewed movies for years and so he has the…
New AP Writer: Dr. Winfield Bevins
Want to learn more about prayer? Want to be encouraged in mission? We’ve just landed a writing pastor that will help us with both of those, in a graceful and clear way. I’m excited to announce that Dr. Winfield Bevins will be joining our team of writers at Anglican Pastor. Winfield is founding rector of…
The Theology of Michael Ramsey for Today
by Jonathan Warren. “People ask me, sometimes, if I am in good heart about being Archbishop … My answer is ‘Yes’ … But the phrase ‘in good heart’, gives me pause, because after all, we are here as a church to represent Christ crucified and the compassion of Christ crucified before the world. And, because…
Michael Ramsey, Conversion, and Christian Reunion
by Jonathan Warren Introducing Michael Ramsey One feature of Anglican church history I am especially interested to highlight in these essays is the role that the Archbishop of Canterbury has played in crafting the temper and character of Anglicanism as a theological and spiritual tradition. For Anglicans, bishops are the chief symbol of Christian unity,…
