Pastoral ministry is serious business. And, as we know from the Spiderman movies, with great seriousness comes great responsibility (or something like that). I suggest here that we are responsible from time to time to lighten up. A congregation needs a pastor with a good sense of humor if either are going to thrive.

God has over time not let me take myself too seriously. In this episode, I share some of the ways he’s done that. I’d love to hear your stories as well. Email me at [email protected].

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EPISODE NOTES

Notes and resources relevant to this episode:

And for those having trouble laughing at ourselves, perhaps you can begin by laughing at others. Try this!

Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.
Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / Lyrics
Outro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video

To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.

No one would really dress pastors in capes and ask  them to stop a runaway locomotive of to faster than a speeding bullet. And yet, we can forget that they, or we, are human. Pastors are humanly subject to the same struggles and afflictions and, yes, doubts, as other Christians, and it’s healthy for us to remember that. 

I could travel the path that Stuart in last week’s story traveled. Many pastors have. But there are things that keep me from doing so, as hopefully, there are for you as well. This week I want to think about some of these things. 

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EPISODE NOTES

Notes and resources relevant to this episode:

Jerram Barrs recounts the story of Schaeffer’s struggle in his introduction to Francis Schaeffer, True Spirituality, (United States: Tyndale, 2001).

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My soul clings to the dust;

give me life according to your word!

My soul melts away for sorrow;

strengthen me according to your word!

Put false ways far from me

and graciously teach me your law!

(Psalm 119:25, 28, 29)

Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.
Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / Lyrics
Outro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video

To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.

Some of the truest things every spoken have been spoken through story, through fiction. What follows here then is fiction in a genre I have dubbed “pastoral horror.” It’s brief, and for some it will be unsettling and for others it will be resonant. Either way, it explores spaces that few ever want to visit. 

We tell movie characters about to descend into the dark basement in the cabin in the woods to not go there. But sometimes it’s necessary to do so in order to get light into dark places. And the light, I promise, will come. But first we have to descend.

Please rate and review this as you are able. And support what we do here through Patreon. Most importantly, tell others! 

But for now, a story . . . 

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EPISODE NOTES

Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.
Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / Lyrics
Outro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video

To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.

I’m Randy Greenwald and this is Greatheart’s Table, the podcast for “busy” pastors and those who care for them. I’ve put quotes around “busy” because this is the second of two reset episodes from first released in August of 2021 on the subject of the “busy-ness” of pastors, an affliction with which I’m all too well acquainted. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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EPISODE NOTES

Notes and resources relevant to this episode:

Eugene Peterson, The Contemplative Pastor (United States: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1989), pp. 19-22

David Allen, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, Revised Edition (United States: Piatkus Books, 2015)

James Fallows, “Organize Your Life”

Gordon MacDonald, Ordering Your Private World (United States: Thomas Nelson Publishers,1984), pp.81ff.
The other three “laws” are:

• Unseized time flows toward my weaknesses.

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Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.
Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / Lyrics
Outro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video

To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.

With this episode and the next I reset and re-release two episodes from August of 2021. As we all know, to be busy and to be a pastor are co-morbid conditions. But should they be? There will always be things to do. But are they the right things?

Thanks for listening.

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EPISODE NOTES

Notes and resources relevant to this episode:

John Calvin, Commentaries on the Last Four Books of Moses, Volume 1 (United States: Baker Book House, 1989), pp. 303-304. This is Calvin’s commentary on Exodus 18:13ff.

Eugene Peterson, The Contemplative Pastor (United States: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1989), p. 17.

Dan Allender, Leading with a Limp (United States: Waterbrook Press, 2008), p. 128.

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Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.
Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / Lyrics
Outro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video

To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.

Welcome to Greatheart’s Table, the podcast for pastors and those who care for them.

In this episode I want to take you on a tour around our small suburban house, to consider the trees in our yard. I assure you that you have not accidentally linked to a podcast on home landscape design or the like. And I do hope these stories of trees provide for you some pleasure, encouragement, and even renewal.

Thanks for listening.

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EPISODE NOTES

Notes and resources relevant to this episode:

Andrew Peterson, The God of the Garden: Thoughts on Creation, Culture, and the Kingdom of God, (United States: B & H Publishing Group, 2021).

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Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.
Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / Lyrics
Outro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video

To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.

A couple of months ago, I mused here about Jesus’ call that we love others. A Christianity that cannot walk in love with one another and with the world is not a Christianity that reflects the one we claim to follow, and so we must lean into it.

And while the phrase “the devil is in the details” may be a bit out of place here, there is some truth to it. As one reader pointed out, there are people we’re called to love who are in many respects hard, if not impossible, to love. How do we love them?

His question has haunted me, and so this episode is an attempt, inadequate as it feels, at an answer.

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EPISODE NOTES

Notes and resources relevant to this episode:

Rachel Denhollander’s now famous address to her abuser, Larry Nassar, is a case study in this. She vehemently pled for just for the sake of those who were abused, but demanded from Nassar genuine repentance. While asking for the judge’s maximum sentence she says to Nassar, “I pray you experience the soul crushing weight of guilt so you may someday experience true repentance and true forgiveness from God, which you need far more than forgiveness from me – though I extend that to you as well.” This is unsentimental love.

For more about the murderous pastor, look here and here.

Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.
Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / Lyrics
Outro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video

To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.

I don’t often respond to current events. I work so slowly that by the time I have a response, the event is no longer current and has been forgotten. Nevertheless, my concern in this episode is one that continues to be raised, and so the time feels right to address it once again.

If you are new to Greatheart’s Table, and many of you are, welcome! You can scroll back and listen to episode #67 to find out what we are all about here. 

Let me know how we are doing by rating and reviewing this podcast, and please tell others we are here. And if you can, help support what we do at Patreon.com.

Thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table.

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EPISODE NOTES

Notes and resources relevant to this episode:

I shared this word from the heart with the @SBTS and @BoyceCollege family at the end of chapel service today.

Many have reached out after its public circulation, so I am sharing it as well. I hope you find it helpful. pic.twitter.com/Ieu6NpMWw8

I addressed this issue in a previous post, podcast episode 81.

The implication of “alone” for most precludes a male pastor meeting a woman unaccompanied even in a public place.

“For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person.” (Matthew 15:19, 20)

Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.
Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / Lyrics
Outro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video

To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.

I’d like to welcome everyone to the inaugural “Rainy Day Conversation around Greatheart’s Table.”

These are longer conversations in which I invite some smart, insightful, and experienced people to talk and to reflect realistically on some aspect of pastoral ministry, or ministry in general. There is no telling what direction these will take.

Currently the plan is for these to be released occasionally – just four times each year on fifth Mondays. But depending on the response, we may up that. 

For this Rainy Day Conversation around Greatheart’s Table I’ve invited three gifted and thoughtful women. Carol Arnold, has many years experience serving churches with her husband Jack, and serving women in the broader church in many capacities. Karyn Hershberger currently serves with her husband a church in Elizabethtown, KY, and Meaghan May, the liaison for elders’ wives in the Presbyterian Church in America is a part of a Colorado church being planted by her husband.

I’ve asked them to talk about the experience of being a ministry spouse, whether that is being the wife of a pastor or of an elder whose role in the church is not his full time job. I’d love to hear what you think!

Thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table.

We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.

You can help support this podcast by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.

EPISODE NOTES

Notes and resources relevant to this episode:

For an explanation about what the goal of these conversations is, and where the name comes from, listen here.

To connect with Meaghan May and the Presbyterian Church in America’s ministry to Elders’ Wives, visit here.

Carol Arnold has written two books:

The Liberation of a Resentful Wife

Devoted Wife, Liberated Widow

Other books mentioned:

Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

Andy Crouch, Strong and Weak: Embracing a Life of Love, Risk and True Flourishing

Alvin Toffler, Future Shock

Kevin DeYoung, The Hole in Our Holiness: Filling the Gap Between Gospel Passion and the Pursuit of Godliness

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Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.
Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / Lyrics
Outro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video

To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.

Hello, everyone. Welcome once again to Greatheart’s Table, the podcast for pastors and those who care for them. This one has a provocative title, to say the least, one which is disconcerting no matter how you read it.

I am using this week’s space to explain and to frame a new feature of Greatheart’s Table which will exist on the podcast side only. I’m quite excited about this and hope that you will be as well. 

This episode includes references to a lot of songs, which can be found in a convenient Spotify playlist linked in the notes below.

I encourage you podcast listeners to also subscribe to the Greatheart’s Table newsletter on Substack, as there are features there that do not appear on the podcast side.

And I hope all of you will take the time to rate and review the podcast and to tell others about it.

Thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table.

We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.

You can help support this podcast by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.

EPISODE NOTES

Notes and resources relevant to this episode:

https://greatheartstable.substack.com/p/zombies-and-the-people-of-grace

Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.
Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / Lyrics
Outro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video

To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.