My husband recently finished a summer unit of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) which is a group of pastors and chaplains with a supervisor coming together to learn about pastoral care, write verbatims, and work through issues of their family of origin, conflict resolution styles, emotional processing, etc. Generally working through their own ‘Stuff’ so as not to get in… Read more →
I’m a pastor’s kid, a pastor’s spouse, and a pastor, and I’m here to tell you that the church will break your heart. I came into seminary a little disillusioned, swearing that I would never be a pastor. I told them that I was a PK and that I had seen it all — the good, the bad, and the… Read more →
I had blogged through grad school and during my year at the children’s hospital. I enjoyed it, and it was a good way to process what I was seeing and dealing with and to occasionally remind people how mortal we are when the realization got too big for me to hold on my own. In some ways it was simple… Read more →
I don’t want to be a Bradford pear tree. Don’t get me wrong, I think they’re beautiful. They grow quickly, they flower in the spring, they’re just lovely. They sound perfect, don’t they? But there are consequences to growing too quickly. The house I lived in the longest growing up had one right off the deck when we moved in.… Read more →
I’m a new pastor, and at that point I was only three months into the parish, so I was always somewhere between “This is awesome” and “Dear Lord what have I gotten myself into.” I sometimes see myself as God’s cheerleader to my congregation trying to encourage and remind them that God is good, creation is good, and we can help… Read more →