by rg7878 | Jul 28, 2025 | Uncategorized
Those who know me know how skeptical I am about the use of statistics by pastors, and how much I mistrust a certain oft-quoted polling organization based in California. But my concern is not statistics per se, but the fact that if we are not careful the pulpit,...
by rg7878 | Jul 21, 2025 | Uncategorized
As many know, on the first, second, and third Mondays of each month I reproduce here an audio version of my Substack newsletter, for those who prefer their content in audio form. But on the third and fifth Mondays I release audio only conversations with others who...
by rg7878 | Jul 14, 2025 | Uncategorized
I love good children’s books. This is so well known, that a 9 year old member of our church recently took great joy in giving me Volume 1 of a collection of Mo Willems’ Elephant and Piggie books. She was beaming, and so was I. Books like these ought to be read for the...
by rg7878 | Jul 7, 2025 | Uncategorized
The content of this episode is excerpted from my retreat addressing what I call “off-script kids.” I explained this in a post a few weeks ago. The retreat is linked in the show notes. Parents of off-script kids carry many different emotions. But what they should not...
by rg7878 | Jun 30, 2025 | Uncategorized
Ordinarily you only hear me on these episodes. But periodically I like to drop into the mix longer conversations with men and women who have insight into pastoral well-being or practice. Rainy Day People are, as suggested by Gordon Lightfoot’s song of that name, those...
by rg7878 | Jun 23, 2025 | Uncategorized
Inasmuch as the title and conceit of this podcast and the newsletter on which it is based is drawn from the allegory Pilgrim’s Progress, I trust you will allow me occasional flights of fancy, such as is this one. Is it a dream? I’m not sure. I have been pondering,...
by rg7878 | Jun 9, 2025 | Uncategorized
If you are a pastor, you could probably list thirty-two things that ministry requires that you don’t believe you are good at. We are harsh self critics. But what if we need to be just “okay” at these things? What if it is enough to be “good enough?” What if the...
by rg7878 | Jun 2, 2025 | Uncategorized
Many of you may know that one of my concerns has been and is the guilt and shame of parents whose adult children have made choices troubling to their parents. This sends many parents into an emotional free fall, and often they are in churches where this common...
by rg7878 | May 26, 2025 | Uncategorized
In the U. S., today is Memorial Day, a day for remembering those who have given their lives on behalf of their country. I have distinct memories of, as a child, visiting a cemetery on this day and listening to the sound of taps being played, the bugle in the distance...
by rg7878 | May 12, 2025 | Uncategorized
Pastors are always having to decide what to do. In our day of political turmoil, especially, touching as it does on a plethora of deeply meaningful moral concerns many of us feel that we need to do something, and if we don’t, our parishioners as well as internet...
