Greatheart's Table

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 pressure to excel at […]

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 situation is neither acknowledged or validated. Consequently […]

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 and the notes weaving […]

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 pundits press their agenda upon us. Being […]

The following episode was first aired in September of 2021. The frustration, hopelessness, and caution, it touches upon remain relevant today for pastors and others. We are urged to do something! We are told to act! But what does that mean? What are we to do? What can we? It’s worth thinking about. The underlying […]

Hello. I’m Randy, and I pastor a small church. That, of course, is meant to sound like the stereotyped introduction of an AA meeting.  But this is not an admission that this idea of “Small Church Thinking” which has occupied us recently arises from my being hooked on churches being small. The truth is the […]

Hi! Thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table. If you are new, I particularly welcome you. Our goal is to start and sustain conversations that help pastors thrive, but we find that these things have meaning for people in all life situations. So whatever your role in life or in the church, we welcome you. […]

Hello! I’m Randy Greenwald, and welcome to Greatheart’s Table.  Cue the celebratory music! This begins year five of Greatheart’s Table. When I began I wasn’t sure I had enough material to last a year, and here we are pressing on with enough ideas in the vault to keep us going for some time to come. […]

Hello! Welcome to Greatheart’s Table, the podcast for pastors and those who care for them. I’m Randy Greenwald. Surprisingly, to me, with this episode we wrap up four years of episodes. If you’ve been with us for a short time or for the entire journey, I’m glad you are here. We have no plans to […]

This episode is a reset of one which originally aired in September of 2021. That was a heavy time, and this, a consideration of pastoral playfulness, seemed particularly necessary. That necessity, sadly, remains. There is so much that can weigh us down, that we forget that God has created us for joy. There is much […]