Bøger udgivet af Parson's Porch

I grew up watching my dad write news and editorials forThe South Pittsburg Hustler on the same Underwood typewriter his dad had used. With his two index fingers he seemed almost as fast as the typesetters back in the shop who were using all of theirs.Like myself, Dad had no formal training in journalism, but also like myself he graduated from a master classtaught by his dad.My mother taught me to love to read.My dad taught me to love to write.And I still do.

Just about every single day since being ordained as a pastor, I have felt like Admiral James Stockdale at the 1992 Vice-Presidential debate, when he said: "Who am I? What am I doing here?"Being a pastor was never on my radar. I grew up, or at least was born and raised, in Findlay, Ohio, and my family attended a wonderful congregation there: First Presbyterian Church. It was in this congregation, and literally in their beautiful sanctuary, that I was baptized, confirmed, and, eventually, ordained. It is the only congregation that I have ever officially been a member of, and I will always consider it "home." The two pastors during my entire childhood and teen years were Terry Bard and Dean Carzoo. Theirs were the only sermons I heard for the first 18 years of my life, and they set the bar high for me.I graduated from Denison University with degrees in Philosophy and Cinema, and then wandered for a few years through Yale University (trying my hand at Philosophy) and Hollywood, California (trying my hand at Cinema) before returning to Ohio, to Bowling Green State University, where I obtained a M.A. in American History. I fully intended to go on and earn a Ph.D., but God had other plans. While in Bowling Green, I reconnected with First Presbyterian Church of Findlay and with Terry Bard, who one day suggested I consider going to seminary. It was, and remains, one of the most outlandish suggestions I've ever heard. Yet I was unable to shake it, and when I finally realized, with some help from Saint Augustine, that this might be more than a mere suggestion and the true source might be from higher up than my childhood pastor, I returned to Terry Bard's office to ask: "Now what?" Another question I have been asking ever since.I graduated from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University, and was ordained by the Presbyterian Church (USA) in 1997.

Faith Poetry is more about how to live in this world than it is about how to live in an afterlife.All we have is this moment The here and now. The present gift The world is the poem.Nature poetry is the spiritual expression of who we are. Nature sings the song of our faith, our being The language of our soul.Dwayne Cole and his wife, Beth met while they were both in seminary studying for the Master of Divinity degree. Dwayne has also earned a Master of Theology and a Ph.D. in New Testament with a major in Greek. They have an adult son and daughter and two teenage grandchildren.They came to Alaska in 2011 to be with family. Their daughter and son in law came to start their medical practice and needed help with their two children.

About a decade ago, there were rumblings throughout the Methodist church about a new aspect of ¿" spirituality." Honestly, I was a little young to remember the specifics but there were a group of likeminded people ¿"out west somewheres" (west of Ohio, where I was at the time) that were taking a new view of the sexuality of God.Somehow, this is where ¿God the Mother got some of the grounded foundation that began to grow in popularity. In college we had a Chapel Dean who would refer to God as "Her." It never really bothered anyone enough to do anything about it. My circle of friends just agreed that it wasn't what we were used to and sounded somehow foreign, yet in the truth of the matter God was genderless at God's core, so you could potentially refer to God as you chose.The problem with all this arises when people, who are far less comfortable with their perception of God being altered, are confronted with the notion of God the Mother. Or, conversely, when an overzealous feminist latches onto the term in order to shove the female persona in the faces of a male dominated religion.Unfortunately, I've had the displeasure of dealing with both types.

Michael felt compelled to turn off Highway N and proceed up the long gravel driveway. He was on the third day of his two-week, late June escapade when he spotted it. It was a farmhouse that looked just like his childhood home. He had to have a closer look. Not being in a hurry, making the stop was no problem.Michael had finalized plans for his trip a couple of months earlier. His goal was to meander through the state of Wisconsin and visit with several farmers along the way. He wanted to find out firsthand how the changes that had been occurring in agriculture during the past twenty-five to thirty years were affecting rural folks, especially dairy farmers.

This book is devoted to homilies that the Rev. Dr. Charles A. Peek gave at Grace Church, Red Cloud, over the two decades spanning the turn of the 20th to the 21st Century. Dr. George Day first suggested the homilies be collected, and Fr. Peek assembled the collection with gratitude for having been asked so often to preach at Grace Church and with warm memories of the many who responded so positively over those years. Where the homilies occurred at a Spring Conference, they often emphasized particular Cather works being emphasized in the conference program. The scripture was usually drawn from the lessons assigned to a Sunday or Feast day near the time of the conference; where the scripture reference is not clear in the text, the scriptures used are listed in a footnote.

In God and Evil, I have used poetic imagery as a way of uniting science, philosophy, theology, and the arts. During fifty years of Christian ministry, I struggled with the deep mystery of God and evil. I not only had to deal with my personal struggles with suffering and death, but also the needs of thousands of church members who looked to me for help. This book, God and Evil: An Ode to Kindness, is a summation of my pastoral advice on how to cope with evil without being broken in the process. The faith premise is that God is in the world and for the world, in us and for us, luring us toward goodness and kindness so that we may become our very best self.

The vision inspired by this book can change our world into one community knitted together by kind words and gentle actions. This hope filled vision taps into the healing energy of kindness found in most religions and makes it the prism through which we understand God, the world, and all things. Following this path of relational kindness, leads me to be at home in any religion teaching and practicing kindness-Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Islamic, Buddhist, and all religious groups teaching kindness. Kindness is the language known around the world. Wrapped in God's kindness, we are all one-The One in many and the many in One.

Jesus' gentle life and tender teachings actualize God's aims and purposes for all creation. Jesus learned to incorporate each moment of his life in an experience of God's life and his growing consciousness of God's presence linked the past action of God in the prophets like Isaiah and Hosea to his ministry that created a vision for the future. That union was a fusion of human and divine love that enables us to look back to beginning times and glance forward to end times. Thus in Jesus' tender words and gentle actions we see and feel God acting. Past, present, and future become a unity bound up in loving kindness. Love is a uniting force. Staying power resides in these tender teachings. Simple acts of loving kindness to our self, our family, and to all living things are the most hopeful and powerful transformers in the world and may very well be our greatest hope of survival when relationships between countries have reached dangerous levels of disharmony and environmental changes threaten the future of our planet.

Betty Murphy, a lifelong educator, describes herself as "the kind of person who locks the end of her coat in the door when she's running late." A native of Tennessee, she lives with her husband in a Bucks County, Pennsylvania townhouse, overlooking a beautiful park. She enjoys all things antique, quaint, scenic, and historic.In her travels she discovered the beautiful vista on the book's cover-a breathtaking view in the Canadian Rockies that moved her to tears. Betty describes Martha's Prayer Book as "an entry level attempt to have a relationship with God."

These poems are both simple and profound, as is the life they reflect. Mrs. Constantino gives us a glimpse of that crucible where all souls are shaped: the family, where all the drama begins and only ends with the final curtain. Her parents, siblings, Catholic school "Wearing an ugly blue uniform with scratchy white collar", husbands, children, grandchildren, a beloved nephew gone too soon, a baby lost and another gained, friends, foes, dogs, travels, work, youth, sickness, age, and abiding faith are all here, in hints and guesses, prayers, and reveries. Poets never tell the whole story. What is not said is often the deepest truth. As Mary writes, 'Life is full, yet life is small." She understands the mystery and the paradox that life is made of and that poetry tries to express.

I find it hard to believe that I'm able to assemble a collection of sermons that spans twenty years-from 1996 to 2016. This collection includes sermons from my seminary intern year in California, as well as from churches I've pastored in Vermont, Colorado, and New York. There are sermons on the Parables of Jesus, on the Book of Job, and sermons that wrestle with current events, including two sermons that were substantially rewritten on Saturday in response to the news on Friday.I once heard it said that preaching on the Parables of Jesus was "a young preacher's dream and an older preacher's nightmare." In this collection you'll find sermons on Jesus' parables from a young preacher and from an older one. I do know that in my early years I was eager to tackle the hardest parables, such as the "Unjust Steward" or "Dishonest Manager" of Luke 16:1-8, and now I approach the parables with considerably greater caution. In this collection you'll find four sermons preached on the Book of Job, which is a task that I approached with tremendous humility and caution. I'm in debt to Samuel Balentine's commentary on the Book of Job, and to Thomas G. Long's book What Shall We Say? Evil, Suffering, and the Crisis of Faith for immensely helpful insights into Job.During the 2015-2016 program year the Katonah Presbyterian Church committed to reading through Brian McLaren's book We Make the Road by Walking. We had small group discussions of the book, and each week the sermon was in dialogue with the scripture texts and the pertinent chapter in McLaren's book. You'll find two of those sermons in this collection: "Working Through the Unimaginable" and "Judgment Day."

This is an unusual rendering of the Seven Last Words in that it concentrates more on the humanity of Jesus: in his use of contemporary language, in his expressions of anguish as he begs the Father's mercy, in his triumph over his own human doubting and his final letting go in full trust, turning over his spirit to the infinite Mercy he always knew awaited him. My rationale comes from the Eucharistic prayer that describes him as "one like us in all things but sin". I took that to imply that even Jesus -- God though he was -- could be subject to uncertainty at times, to hurt feelings when friends disappointed him, to times of impatience, anger, loss, frustration and ambivalence.

Keep in mind as you read Paul's writing that you are hearing what Paul wrote, but may not have a full grasp of the problem to which he is speaking. It is like hearing one side of a telephone conversation. It is reading letters that are responses to letters received; problems heard about; and personal concerns and truth that Paul desires to convey to the readers. The purpose of this study is to help the reader get a better grasp of Paul's story and through meditation and questioning discover ways to be a better follower of Jesus The idea is to study Paul in the light of the life and teachings of Jesus. "The Jesus Story: Musings for Meditation and Application" might give additional help. Each chapter in this book will also close with an Application to Life challenge. This book is designed for individual and group study.

The creativity, the intellectual work, and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit all combined for me in a marvelous and weighty, yet light and sparkling way for me to be a channel of God's word on a given Sunday. I thank God for giving me the opportunity and the challenge, the responsibility and the creative gifts to bring these matters to life. I hope you will find these sermons of use to you in your spiritual life despite the fact that they were written prior to the turn of the 21st century. None were written on a typewriter, however - all had the benefit of a computer!

The sermons in this book were written with so much help from other people that I can hardly claim to be the author. Most every day I am taking notes as I see the Holy Spirit at work in the world, writing down things that I see and what I hear people say. I am very grateful for every person who has allowed me to share part of his or her story from the pulpit. Each of you has made the Gospel come alive to me.

Joe and Bertha McKeever are acquainted with grief. Grief 101 is their gift to others who have faced the death of someone loved.Thirteen months after Margaret died and twenty-one months after Gary died, Bertha Fagan and Joe met for the first time. Eleven months later, they married. Bertha Pepper Fagan was married to Dr. Gary Fagan, a preacher of the gospel and a seminary classmate of Joe's, for over 52 years. Gary and Bertha pastored churches across the country, and then went as missionaries to Malawi and Brazil. This book represents their grief journey as each of them faced life without their life companion. Grief 101: How to get back up when blindsided by the death of someone you love is a simple guide for others who are experiencing a profound confrontation with loss and grief.

Like our own capillaries, tiny branches reach into the vacant space around them. Light - air - water - even snow sustain them. Their movements unobserved, they inch, surreptitious, into the air,curve toward the window, stare in at us as if to say, "How sadly self-contained you are."

When we started swapping stories with each other, we realized our stories are poignant enough, interesting enough, and funny enough to share with others. That is how this book got started and ultimately came to fruition. Oddly, we are really very different in many aspects of our lives. Suellen grew up in East Tennessee where she grew to love the mountains. Joyce grew up in West Tennessee where she loved the flat land and the Mississippi River. And now here we are living in Middle Tennessee where we have discovered the one thing we have in common is a keen sense of humor, and the grace to know a good story when we find one.

Parson's Porch Books is delighted to present to you this series called Sermons Matter.We believe that many of the best writers are pastors who take the role of preacher seriously. Week in, and week out, they exegete scripture, research material, write and deliver sermons in the context of the life of their particular congregation in their given community.We further believe that sermons are extensions of Holy Scripture which need to be published beyond the manuscripts which are written for delivery each Sunday. Books serve as a vehicle for the sermon to continue to proclaim the Good News of the Morning to a broader audience.We celebrate the wonderful occasion of the preaching event in Christian worship when the Pastor speaks, the People listen and the Work of the Church proceeds.

Early Morning "Listening"I'm really a morning person, if left to my own devices. When I'm involved with someone (when I was married or when I'm dating someone) that schedule gets pushed to the back. For one thing, I seem to pick night owls. But for another, it is hard to find one-on-one time before kids are in bed, which means staying up. But when I am left on my own, I tend to go to bed at the same time as the kids - 9 or 9:30, read for maybe 30 minutes and then crash. That means on the other end, I often wake up at 5 or 5:30, long before there is any movement from the children. I like going to bed at the same time as the kids. There is often a little more conversation than otherwise as I tuck the kids into bed. And I find I love those quiet morning moments. I look out the window and watch the birds and other wildlife. I notice the plants and trees. I think, I pray. Sometimes I eat, sometimes I read. But mostly it is time between me and my Creator to just be. No matter what else is going on, that quiet time centers me, grounds me, reminds me of the big picture. Before the hustle and bustle of the day, it helps me to slow down and take my time. Before being inundated with news and media and the traumas of the world, it helps me to just see the beauty out my window and in whatever corner of the world I am currently sitting. This time helps me to be peaceful and to put that peace into my heart to strengthen me for more chaotic moments. It reminds me to be grateful for each breath and for each day as it comes. No doubt the day will hold challenges. But I am fortified to meet them through this morning routine of peace and quiet. It is one of life's big gifts. And I am grateful.

Nothing could have prepared Shannah for what she just saw. Her husband and this woman were checking into a local hotel together. Ezekiel told me he would be working late but I guess he made a stop first. After 6 faithful years of marriage to Ezekiel, I find text messages and phone numbers to this random chick (or so I thought). I know I shouldn't have gone through his phone, but his strange behavior made me suspicious, so I began following him. I saw with my own eyes what had been distracting him. My whole life crumbled right before my eyes. What about our children? What about the vows we took? After all I have done for him, and this is how he thanks me. I was ANGRY! In the middle of my madness, Desmond sends me a message on social media. What a convenient time for my ex-boyfriend to try to get in touch with me. Will Shannah forgive Ezekiel or get even?

The writing of The Women of Judges was written, as were my previous two books, through a request from Dr. Arthur Crisco. Art is the volunteer editor for a Christian missionary organization. The original request was for leaflets on eleven women in The Book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). Then he suggested the material be put into a book. I edited the leaflet material and added material on each. I included a chapter on the abducted women found in the last two chapters of Judges. I also added Naomi, Ruth and Hannah who lived in the time of the Judges. The Scripture translation I use is from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).The other two books mentioned above: The Jesus Story, Musings for Meditation and Application and The Paul Story, Musings for Meditation and Application. Both are available from ParsonsPorchBooks.com or through your favorite book store.

Books can do many things. They can inspire, share history, scare, thrill, inform- the list is long. As I look over the chapters on Iraq, Chiapas, Iran, Hezbollah, Zaire etc- I see the very real possibility that this book could become a new text for the International Society for Research on Impulsivity! Impulsivity is defined as the “tendency to act on a whim, displaying behavior characterized by little or no forethought, reflection, or consideration of the consequences.” I got that- I really do. Personally, I’ve tried to measure some life situations- and some decisions- by this axiom; “What’s the worst thing that could happen?”As of this writing, it’s been over 40 years since I had the privilege of working as a young chaplain at the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department in Memphis, Tennessee. The Senior Chaplain was Rev. Jimmy Whitlock, a complicated amalgamation of faith and fury. Under his care, I spent my days in the jail, and my nights on the streets of Memphis.

Parson's Porch Books is delighted to present to you this series called Sermons Matter.We believe that many of the best writers are pastors who take the role of preacher seriously. Week in, and week out, they exegete scripture, research material, write and deliver sermons in the context of the life of their particular congregation in their given community.We further believe that sermons are extensions of Holy Scripture which need to be published beyond the manuscripts which are written for delivery each Sunday. Books serve as a vehicle for the sermon to continue to proclaim the Good News of the Morning to a broader audience.We celebrate the wonderful occasion of the preaching event in Christian worship when the Pastor speaks, the People listen and the Work of the Church proceeds.Take, Read, and Heed.David Russell Tullock, M.Div., D.Min.PublisherParson's Porch Books

Parson's Porch Books is delighted to present to you this series called Sermons Matter.We believe that many of the best writers are pastors who take the role of preacher seriously. Week in, and week out, they exegete scripture, research material, write and deliver sermons in the context of the life of their particular congregation in their given community.We further believe that sermons are extensions of Holy Scripture which need to be published beyond the manuscripts which are written for delivery each Sunday. Books serve as a vehicle for the sermon to continue to proclaim the Good News of the Morning to a broader audience.We celebrate the wonderful occasion of the preaching event in Christian worship when the Pastor speaks, the People listen and the Work of the Church proceeds.

The JOY Thieves is a collection of sermons that are also stories. Most come from the last few years here at Dickey Memorial in Baltimore, though a few wormed their way in from a year spent serving a church in Northern Ireland. Some imagine their way into the stories found in scripture, some use stories from my own life or the lives of those I love, and some are fictitious in their entirety. A few are complete narratives; most are only partially so. But they are all, at their core, storytelling sermons.

The writer of Ecclesiastes noted that "there is no end to the making of many books" (Ecclesiastes 12:12).[1] His observation certainly applies to books on prayer. Why, then, another book that explores the prayer-pattern Jesus gave His early followers? That is a good question. After all, countless books have been written on the subject. Furthermore, vast numbers of sermons have been delivered based on the texts, and myriads of Sunday School lessons have examined the prayer. It has been put to music, and many of us are moved by its beauty. To undertake to write another book that explores the brief accounts may seem presumptuous, even somewhat arrogant. I do not presume to be a New Testament scholar, and I do not claim insights no one else has received. In fact, most of my understanding of Jesus' words come from insights teachers, preachers, and writers have expressed. I have undertaken to write out of a personal interest in and fascination with Jesus' teaching that is preserved for us in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.I long have been convinced that the title "the Lord's Prayer" is a misnomer. Most of those who use the title may well mean the prayer the Lord gave His followers. Some may take it to mean a prayer Jesus prayed and shared with His disciples. Yet the petition for forgiveness is evidence to me that Jesus did not pray the prayer but intended it to be a pattern used by His followers. He had no sin for which He needed forgiveness; we are sinners and constantly need God's mercy. I believe the best title for Jesus' outline is "the Model Prayer." To me, it is a pattern or framework-a guide to authentic and productive prayer.

In a 1987 commencement address at Duke University, broadcast journalist and news anchor Ted Koppel entertained the audience with his observation about the Ten Commandments: "What Moses brought down from Mt. Sinai were not the Ten Suggestions. They are commandments." Unfortunately Mr. Koppel was wrong on both counts. In the Hebrew text, the translation is properly "words" or "sayings" rather than "laws" or "commandments." This part of the sacred text was initially referred to as the "Decalogue" or the "Ten Words" of God, and today some continue to choose the specific terminology of the "ten words" for its characterization.Unlike most legal codes the "Ten Words" provide neither enforcement guidelines nor consequences for their violation. These "Ten Words" were the preamble to the Torah, the Jewish law, and became synonymous with legal requirements and codes of conduct among the Hebrews. In association with Jewish law, the Decalogue eventually was identified as the "Ten Commandments." Their character to guide behavior and to proscribe conduct was firmly established over the centuries and was wholly adopted by the Christian faith.

Nine years ago a thirty-second phone call changed my life. I was hosting the annual Christmas luncheon for our staff when I slipped out to get the results from a recent blood test. The voice on the other end of the line announced, "Your PSA is 3.5." The blood drained from my head as a bowling ball dropped into my stomach. Usually any number below 4.0 is considered normal. But I had undergone a prostatectomy six weeks earlier. My PSA should have been zero. No one had anticipated this. Everybody, and I mean everybody, had told me I would be fine. After all, the cancer had been caught early and my numbers were relatively low. But a retest a few days later confirmed our fears. I had metastatic prostate cancer for which there is no cure. My wife, my family and I were devastated.As I sought to absorb this disquieting news, I was troubled by how fearful and anxious I felt. When I reached into my spiritual satchel for consolation, all I found were pennies, lint and a bus token. As a pastor, I thought I would be able to face such a trial with peace and confidence in God. In their absence, I realized that my spirituality was a mile wide and an inch deep. Although I had observed daily devotions for decades, my prayer life, scripture study and overall discipleship were anemic at best.