Holy Shenanigans

Let's make November a time for blessing, thanks and gratitude. Tara invites you to Say YES to the BLESS by taking part in everyday practices of thanksgiving all month long.

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Rev. Tara Lamont Eastman is a pastor, podcaster and host of Holy Shenanigans since September of 2020.  Eastman combines her love of ministry with her love of writing, music and visual arts. She is a graduate of Wartburg Theological Seminary’s Theological Education for Emerging Ministry Program and the Youth and Theology Certificate Program at Princeton Seminary. She has served in various ministry and pastoral roles over the last thirty years in the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) and PCUSA (Presbyterian Church of America).  She is the pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Warren Pennsylvania. She has presented workshops on the topics of faith and creativity at the Wild Goose Festival. She is a trainer for Soul Shop Suicide Prevention for Church Communities.

Bill Withers sang "we all need somebody to lean on." Tara muses about the practices and people we need to help us see the sacred in the everyday experiences of life. Ready? Hop on the Holy Shenanigans bus!

Thanks to Rev RH Hart for asking this question all those years ago at Institute for Youth Ministry at Princeton Theological Seminary.
Sound Effects from Pixabay.

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Rev. Tara Lamont Eastman is a pastor, podcaster and host of Holy Shenanigans since September of 2020.  Eastman combines her love of ministry with her love of writing, music and visual arts. She is a graduate of Wartburg Theological Seminary’s Theological Education for Emerging Ministry Program and the Youth and Theology Certificate Program at Princeton Seminary. She has served in various ministry and pastoral roles over the last thirty years in the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) and PCUSA (Presbyterian Church of America).  She is the pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Warren Pennsylvania. She has presented workshops on the topics of faith and creativity at the Wild Goose Festival. She is a trainer for Soul Shop Suicide Prevention for Church Communities.

Over the past few weeks, the gift of gratitude practices has bubbled, bubbled up to the surface - even amidst some toil and trouble! This experience of listening for the sacred in everyday life is something I call Holy Shenanigans. So in light of the good bubbling up of gratitude and the gifts of Halloween trick-or-treating: Let’s put on our Halloween best and go out to seek some good treats!

Today's special sppoky music by  SoundGalleryBy from Pixabay.

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Rev. Tara Lamont Eastman is a pastor, podcaster and host of Holy Shenanigans since September of 2020.  Eastman combines her love of ministry with her love of writing, music and visual arts. She is a graduate of Wartburg Theological Seminary’s Theological Education for Emerging Ministry Program and the Youth and Theology Certificate Program at Princeton Seminary. She has served in various ministry and pastoral roles over the last thirty years in the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) and PCUSA (Presbyterian Church of America).  She is the pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Warren Pennsylvania. She has presented workshops on the topics of faith and creativity at the Wild Goose Festival. She is a trainer for Soul Shop Suicide Prevention for Church Communities.

Tara puts three-and-a-half questions about love to Bob Lebel, a clinical geneticist in Syracuse, New York. 

Bob Lebel is a congenital Roman Catholic, came to ELCA as an adult.  Married, three sons, four grandchildren.  Earned advance degrees in Zoology, Theology, Ethics and Genetics; physician teaching and practicing medical genetics and genetic counseling at SUNY Upstate Medical University.  He enjoys singing in church, gardening with his wife, reading classics, listening to “classical” music, going to plays/musicals, and writing (over 300 publications ranging from poems to book reviews to scientific research and a book on genetic counseling).

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Rev. Tara Lamont Eastman is a pastor, podcaster and host of Holy Shenanigans since September of 2020.  Eastman combines her love of ministry with her love of writing, music and visual arts. She is a graduate of Wartburg Theological Seminary’s Theological Education for Emerging Ministry Program and the Youth and Theology Certificate Program at Princeton Seminary. She has served in various ministry and pastoral roles over the last thirty years in the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) and PCUSA (Presbyterian Church of America).  She is the pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Warren Pennsylvania. She has presented workshops on the topics of faith and creativity at the Wild Goose Festival. She is a trainer for Soul Shop Suicide Prevention for Church Communities.

A message of hope in a season of grief and loss... Tara chats with researcher and author Dr. Eileen Campbell-Reed about how resilience, grace, and gratitude lead to lasting change and wholeness. Rev. Dr. Eileen Campbell-Reed (she/hers) is Visiting Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology and Care at Union Theological Seminary, New York City. She is founder and host of Three Minute Ministry Mentor (weekly video, blog and podcast), and author of Pastoral Imagination (2021) and the #PandemicPastoring Report (2022).

This episode also makes reference to the work of researcher, writer and speaker: Brene' Brown

To learn more about Eileen Campbell-Reed's work:
Author Website
Pandemic Pastoring
Three Minute Ministry Mentor

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Rev. Tara Lamont Eastman is a pastor, podcaster and host of Holy Shenanigans since September of 2020.  Eastman combines her love of ministry with her love of writing, music and visual arts. She is a graduate of Wartburg Theological Seminary’s Theological Education for Emerging Ministry Program and the Youth and Theology Certificate Program at Princeton Seminary. She has served in various ministry and pastoral roles over the last thirty years in the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) and PCUSA (Presbyterian Church of America).  She is the pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Warren Pennsylvania. She has presented workshops on the topics of faith and creativity at the Wild Goose Festival. She is a trainer for Soul Shop Suicide Prevention for Church Communities.

Today we wish Holy Shenanigans a happy 2nd birthday... and talk about the intersection between faith, traumatic experiences, and trauma recovery with Jennifer Ohman-Rodriguez.

About today's guest:
Jennifer Ohman-Rodriguez is in the first call process toward ordination in Word and Sacrament ministry in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Her first book, A Time to Mourn and a Time to Dance: A Love Story of Grief, Trauma, Healing, and Faith, is published by Chalice Press.  Ohman-Rodriguez is a frequent workshop presenter in trauma-informed spiritual care and also curates the Trauma Recovery Page at Compassionate Christianity.  She holds master’s degrees in early child development and divinity.

This weeks' poem:
It's only just the dawn

October’s chill is falling, fog is rolling, and crickets sigh. A train is on track with mourning’s blight and wheel clack in the mid-of-night.

There’s always something moving, even a drowsy lark.                                                    
There’s always changes coming, even in the deepest dark.

True mercy can’t be kept apart from the shadows of life and love. Mercy stretches her arms to embrace the whole sad world and breach the great divide.

 There’s always someone walking, in the sweaty heat of life.                                              
There’s always someone moving, shifting between dark and bright.

 Wandering souls aren’t lost, when they remember their cause. They hold tight to hope in the darkest night or the cold of an early frost.

 There’s always someone trying to tell you what you’ve done.                                            
There’s always someone saying, you’ve lost and it can’t be won.

 There’s a train that travels in mercy and it fills the world with grace. On this train all are welcome – it’s no matter of beauty, wealth or place.

There is One who says you’re accepted. There is One who extends all the grace.  
This is One who banishes the darkness and ushers in the morning light to shine on every face.

Don’t heed those words of worry. Don’t let them hold you down. 
Wait for morning’s dawning that streams beams of light all around.

Look to the east and keep on walking – you’re walking in the sun.

 There’s always something moving, even a drowsy lark.                                                  
There’s always mercy coming, even in the deepest dark.

The journey’s not yet over – it’s only, just the dawn.

Copyright Tara Eastman 2016

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Rev. Tara Lamont Eastman is a pastor, podcaster and host of Holy Shenanigans since September of 2020.  Eastman combines her love of ministry with her love of writing, music and visual arts. She is a graduate of Wartburg Theological Seminary’s Theological Education for Emerging Ministry Program and the Youth and Theology Certificate Program at Princeton Seminary. She has served in various ministry and pastoral roles over the last thirty years in the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) and PCUSA (Presbyterian Church of America).  She is the pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Warren Pennsylvania. She has presented workshops on the topics of faith and creativity at the Wild Goose Festival. She is a trainer for Soul Shop Suicide Prevention for Church Communities.

Tara and author, pianist & activist EDJ consider the power of mercy in a conversation about deconstruction from fundamentalist conservative evangelical religion, embracing feminism, breaking free from purity culture  and learning how  forgiveness can flip tables of harm and bring unexpected healing in a Evangelical Deconstruction Journey.

EDJ's Facebook account
EDJ's Instagram account
EDJ"s TikTok

EDJ / Eady Jay loves to write about spirituality, sexuality, family, health and music. She has a degree in Christian Theology, 30ish years of senseless celibacy under her belt (wink), personal experience in weight-loss of 65 pounds, and years of professional experience building a business as a piano teacher. She is also a loving daughter, sister, aunt, wife and parent who cared for her terminally ill mother and is raising a child born with a cleft lip and palate.
Over the years she has deconstructed the concept of hell leading her down the path of universalism. Then she deconstructed purity culture and many of the “isms” and became a queer-affirming, feminist. She is still on an Evangelical Deconstruction Journey (EDJ), reforming ethics rooted and established in the God who is love, grace and truth personified.
EDJ is this writer’s initials and an acronym for Evangelical Deconstruction Journey. Eady Jay is a pseudonym derived from the initials EDJ.

Poem of the Week:

What if?

Sometimes my mind spends most of the time replaying, creating and taunting with ideas that worry, ideas that cause scurry, ideas that wander and whine.

Instead of thinking on what isn't sinking. 

Instead of pondering what is fine.

Instead of focusing on what is present, 

what is pleasant and what is kind.

Sometimes my mind likes to wander to places that are dark and cold.

Taking me to places with unfriendly faces. 

The places where defense is gold.

Instead of thinking, on what is today. 

Instead of cherishing what I hold.

Instead of drawing attention to beauty, 

to what is sweet and bold.

Sometimes I think I need to stop, and think of things that matter, that last beyond the temporal soil. 

Sometimes, I know I need to want, what I have,

Not what I think, should be my goal.

Instead of focusing on wants and what ifs.

Instead of reaching to remotes.

What if I looked at what I have,

what I possess, and present a treasure to untold?

Copyright T.L. Eastman 2007 

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Rev. Tara Lamont Eastman is a pastor, podcaster and host of Holy Shenanigans since September of 2020.  Eastman combines her love of ministry with her love of writing, music and visual arts. She is a graduate of Wartburg Theological Seminary’s Theological Education for Emerging Ministry Program and the Youth and Theology Certificate Program at Princeton Seminary. She has served in various ministry and pastoral roles over the last thirty years in the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) and PCUSA (Presbyterian Church of America).  She is the pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Warren Pennsylvania. She has presented workshops on the topics of faith and creativity at the Wild Goose Festival. She is a trainer for Soul Shop Suicide Prevention for Church Communities.

During a recent trip to Pittsburgh, Tara geeked out over sets and props from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood on display at the Heinz History Center. The legacy of Fred Rogers came to mind this week while she was musing on the weird parable about the shrewd manager. In a world obsessed with wealth and status, she concludes that faithfulness may be the most precious treasure of all. 

Send Tara a Text Message

Support the show

Rev. Tara Lamont Eastman is a pastor, podcaster and host of Holy Shenanigans since September of 2020.  Eastman combines her love of ministry with her love of writing, music and visual arts. She is a graduate of Wartburg Theological Seminary’s Theological Education for Emerging Ministry Program and the Youth and Theology Certificate Program at Princeton Seminary. She has served in various ministry and pastoral roles over the last thirty years in the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) and PCUSA (Presbyterian Church of America).  She is the pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Warren Pennsylvania. She has presented workshops on the topics of faith and creativity at the Wild Goose Festival. She is a trainer for Soul Shop Suicide Prevention for Church Communities.

What gifts do you have to extend love into the world? You might be surprised to find, it's something you carry with you every day. There is power in YOUR pockets.

Poem: Odd Sock by: T.L. Eastman

There once was a basket of socks that had no mates anymore.  Mom had given my sister and I free reign to do what we wanted with them. “They can become, whatever you want.” We saw this basket of odd socks as treasure. We borrowed Mom’s sewing box. We added buttons, We added bows. We took humble tube socks and we made: puppets, Barbie dresses and attempted making sock monkeys.

Together we had a great time with that basket of socks. To some they might have seemed disposable. But to us, with the help of some buttons, bows and blessing from our Mom - they were a treasure to delight in.

We all have baskets of odd socks. We may not see them as anything but clutter, but what could be possible for those cast-off socks with a blessing, buttons and bows.

I like to think that G-d appreciates all the baskets of odd socks. I think God is delighted with them - especially when we look at them with curiosity and the help of the creative notions of buttons, blessings and bows. 

I think G-d loves to embellish the odd socks of life and make treasure out of them. I hear G-d's got a great craft closet, where the odd socks can become whatever they want to be. 

There is treasure in baskets of odd socks. 

Can you see it? 

Can you be it? 

By the power of blessing, buttons and bows, together we can make treasure from a basket of odd socks.

Copyright 2022 T.L. Eastman

Send Tara a Text Message

Support the show

Rev. Tara Lamont Eastman is a pastor, podcaster and host of Holy Shenanigans since September of 2020.  Eastman combines her love of ministry with her love of writing, music and visual arts. She is a graduate of Wartburg Theological Seminary’s Theological Education for Emerging Ministry Program and the Youth and Theology Certificate Program at Princeton Seminary. She has served in various ministry and pastoral roles over the last thirty years in the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) and PCUSA (Presbyterian Church of America).  She is the pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Warren Pennsylvania. She has presented workshops on the topics of faith and creativity at the Wild Goose Festival. She is a trainer for Soul Shop Suicide Prevention for Church Communities.

In this episode of Beta Male Revolution, Billy & Brandy Eldridge speak with Pastor Tara Eastman about the intersection of feminism and religion.  Like what you hear? Check out Beta Male Revolution for more discussions about emotional intelligence, peacemaking, and self-actualized living.

Thanks Billy & Brandy for making this Beta Male Revolution available to Holy Shenanigan listeners!

Send Tara a Text Message

Support the show

Rev. Tara Lamont Eastman is a pastor, podcaster and host of Holy Shenanigans since September of 2020.  Eastman combines her love of ministry with her love of writing, music and visual arts. She is a graduate of Wartburg Theological Seminary’s Theological Education for Emerging Ministry Program and the Youth and Theology Certificate Program at Princeton Seminary. She has served in various ministry and pastoral roles over the last thirty years in the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) and PCUSA (Presbyterian Church of America).  She is the pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Warren Pennsylvania. She has presented workshops on the topics of faith and creativity at the Wild Goose Festival. She is a trainer for Soul Shop Suicide Prevention for Church Communities.