I enter into this post, deeply aware of how divisive this might be. I shake a little at the thought of this, but deep down I know I must write. A week and a half ago, perhaps more than at any other time in recent years, I felt convicted (and really, I still do given our current potential for a government shut-down)! I feel convicted … Continue reading Neighbor love in light of the past week’s events
Recently, I had the privilege of having a Facebook conversation with a pastor friend. He was openly wondering questions about welcome and what that really means after having read Nadia Bolz-Weber’s Pastrix. I think my pastor friend unwittingly gave me the start of a series of blog posts, so we’ll see where this conversation takes us. To set the stage, we have all seen it, churches … Continue reading The Implications of “All are Welcome”
It’s that time again. Time to share some stuff I have read over the past week that I think you might enjoy. This week I offer them under the headers of leadership and collaboration, church, neighbor love, stewardship, community, and vocation. Leadership and Collaboration Dan offers a great reminder of some of Peter Drucker’s thoughts on treating employees like volunteers. It’s great advice and worth … Continue reading This Week’s Links
It’s that time of the week. Time to offer some links to articles and things which I have found particularly interesting and thought provoking. As always, I entrust them to you and hope you find them equally interesting and insightful. Leadership First of all, if you have not heard of Otto Scharmer before, allow me to introduce you to him and his fantastic blog! Scharmer is the author … Continue reading This Week’s Links
As some of you may know, one of my current roles involves me leading and directing a church choir. As its a church choir, this means that this is a group of people who give up an hour or so every week to rehearse on a weekday evening, and who volunteer to help lead worship a couple times a month. Since I have served in … Continue reading Lessons from Choir Directing about Volunteer Management
I have spoken about this a little before, but I received a MA in Congregational Mission and Leadership from Luther Seminary. Integral to this program is a study and immersion in missional theology which has a major focus on the idea of “being sent.” It is with this in mind, that I am very excited about how Trinity Lutheran Church in Stillwater, MN is shaping … Continue reading “Sent for a Purpose” – What does this mean?
There has been a lot of interesting stuff written and published in the past couple of weeks. These all deserve their own post by me, but for the sake of time and in an effort to share this good stuff, I entrust these links to you for your reading and hopefully thought provoking pleasure. Leadership If you are like me, and you are always looking … Continue reading This Week’s Links
Last week, I came across one of those “re-posts” on my Facebook news feed. I wasn’t particularly happy when I saw it. It read: “REPOST IF U BEILIEVE IN GOD AND IN 2 MINUTES HE WILL DO YOU A HUGE FAVOR” Now first of all, yes, whoever first created this re-post misspelled believe. Second, there is an assumption seemingly made that God has a gender. … Continue reading Some thoughts on a re-post and the prosperity gospel
As has become custom on this blog, I am including a transcript of the sermon I preached this past Sunday (September 1st, 2013). The gospel passage that this centered from was the lectionary appointed one, Luke 14:1, 7-14. Without further adieu here it is: A Sermon for September 1, 2013 (Lectionary 22/Pentecost 15C); Gospel of Luke 14:1, 7-14 The past two Saturdays, Allison and I … Continue reading A Sermon on Luke 14
In my posts yesterday I hinted that there would be upcoming posts about recent changes in the ELCA (the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America). Today, I offer a guest post sharing some reflections from my brother Thomas who was a voting member at the ELCA’s Churchwide Assembly on behalf of the Southwestern Washington Synod. Thomas is in the midst of graduate studies in social work and … Continue reading Guest Post- Reflections on the ELCA Churchwide Assembly
Timothy Siburg 