Recommended

Since I have some time on my hands - I've been reading. And since I'm such a sharing person I wanted to add a Recommended List to the blog with links to the books I think were good plus we can link to movies, games, videos, video games, etc. In other words - please feel free to add more.

I start with three books:

Lamb; The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal.

Okay, perhaps most of you have already read this. Hattle recommended it to me a couple of years ago but it wasn't until Audrey, my daughter, did her major high school integrated learning paper on it, that I got serious about reading it. Its funny. very funny. And it makes the cultural setting of roman occupation very real. And I got back in touch with just how devistating the cruxification must have been to the followers of Christ at the time. Did I mention funny?

Congregational Leadership in Anxious Times; Being Calm and Courageous No Matter What

Steinke works with congregations (and pastoral leadership) in crisis. His view of church is a bit focused on the bad times and behaviors that can take off in the church but I thought the book worth reading not only as I see some friends in the middle of some huge crap at the moment but also good for anticipating and thinking through how to manage crap before it gets anywhere near the fan. Easy read, fast. Good framework to use to get out of panic mode.

The Practice of Pastoral Care; A Postmodern Approach

An encouraging and supportive framework for short term, focused pastoral care in the congregational setting. Builds on Christie Cozad Neuger's book Counseling Women: A Narrative, Pastoral Approach.

More Ordination News

Put another pin in the map! Word on the street has it congratulations are in order for Nick Valadez! He has received a call to Parker Heights Presbyterian Church in Wapato Washington. (Does this put him in your Presbytery Heather?)

Here's what Nick had to say about his new adventure:

"It is a solo pastor of a small congregation (30-40) on Sunday. I have a lot to do. It is a great place to be and lots of peaches, apples, pears, cherries, etc... Lots of the people in the congregation own an orchard, so hopefully free fruit!!! I am looking forward to it. "

He will be ordained on Oct 21st at his home church in Texas. Congratulations to Nick!

Pastor Heather?

Hello friends -

Things are going well in Wilbur. Lars and I are keeping busy. We adopted two new puppies this weekend which has been a bit of a handful. We had planned on one but got carried away. They are both dachshunds and so we now have our own herd.

I am preparing to preach at the Presbytery meeting on Saturday so that is a big deal on the work front. I am planning a Heather style smack down because I am so disgusted with the way things are going there. And to think, this will be the one year anniversary since they chewed me up at my trials of ordination. Watch out world! : )

If you are wondering why my name changed to Pastor Heather it is because I have started a blog for our church. I am going to post sermons and newspaper articles on the site for my parishioners. You can check it out at wilburchurch.blogspot.com or just click on my name and it will take you there.

Hope all are well. Pictures will be on the way as soon as I have time to post from home instead of from work like I'm doing now.

Settling in :)

Hello Friends! It has taken me a long time to post because I have hit the ground running here in Wray, CO. Not to mention I didn't get Internet access until this Wednesday, which was difficult for me to say the least :)

However, things are going really well. The people are great and I went to the big football game on Friday night which made me very happy. There are things that I really love about small towns and high school football is one of them!

I will have some pictures of the new place up as soon as I get a chance. After being here for about a week, I have my first funeral and that is taking up a lot of time. This death was unexpected and was a young man of 30. Finding words of comfort is hard because there are no words. I would appreciate you prayers.

Take care and I will be e-mailing my new address to you all later on this evening! I figured the blog isn't the best place to do that :) Take care and God Bless!

Love, Rev. Jenn :)