Sabbath in the City



I just recently finished the book "Sabbath in the City" by Dryan P. Stone and Claire E. Wolfteich and what a refreshing read. It was refreshing because the areas that this book recommends for Pastors in urban areas to work on have been areas that I have already identified in my own life that I need to work on. It was amazing (even though it shouldn't have been) how much I have in common with many of the other pastors that serve in urban parishes. I have been coming to grips with being an urban pastor. That is being a pastor in the third largest city in Pa. I've never shunned urban ministry, but I have never had to identify myself as an urban pastor, its a perspective change.

Personally I think this is a must read book. So much so that I believe I will be re-reading it in the near future so that I can be reminded to take a sabbath, and put sabbath practices front and center in my life and ministry. As you can tell I highly recommend this book to anyone, including those not in an urban parish setting, there are principles contained in this book that cut across divides. Another important note is that I appreciated this books willingness to criticize seminary education as one that doesn't encourage sabbath practices. Its a very insightful critique that if seminaries actually listen to it might actually change the pastor burn out rate.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh was born in 1853 in the Netherlands. He was born into a middle class family, with parents and relatives in the ministry. Vincent himself was leaning toward going into the ministry. Between 1860-1880 Van Gogh decided to become an artist. His artistic career is defined by two broad categories which I will simplify by calling pre-Paris, and post-Paris. His pre-Paris stage artistically was defined by a decidedly Dutch style of painting, much in the same vein as Rembrandt. Post-Paris, Van Gogh was influenced and defined by impressionists painters. Subsequent from Paris, Van Gogh experienced deteriorating mental health which resulted in his suicide at the age of 37. All the works I could find, and had time to read on Van Gogh, reflected on the artistic influence of various artist on Van Gogh’s work, as well as his love life or lack thereof. There was also a minimal reflection on his familial relationship and its influence on his art. In all the works I referenced t...
Read more

Stewardship Prayer

Scripture: 1 Kings 19:1-13 Central Verse: “…but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.” 1 Kings 19:14b-13 Central Truth: This is the second lesson in our stewardship series and it focuses on Prayer. This may seem like an odd verse to focus on prayer within our membership vows but we must take the time to begin to understand in the most basic elements what prayer is. Prayer is communication with God. With communication there are two important attributes to the conversation. The first is listening and the second is speaking. Most people would put speaking as the primary for conversation but it is just the opposite which is listening. When we speak about prayer in its most basic components we are talking about conversation. Most of the time it feels like we do all the talking. We fill up the silence of our lives with it. This relegates the ro...
Read more

School Update

Since I'm in full swing now with classes I have decided to forgo writing on the Articles of Religion until after the semester. What I hope to do instead is to post some of my papers from class and thoughts I may have on the text books and so on.
Read more