Preaching and the Enneagram: Understanding the gifts and shadows of your Enneagram type
The Enneagram is just one tool that helps us articulate what is helpful about who we are, and what is as yet unknown to us. Because our Enneagram perspectives are so deeply entrenched and devilishly clever in finding their way into the nooks and crannies of our preaching, we often can’t recognize their influence by ourselves. Read on for a brief introduction to the gifts and shadows of each Enneagram type in preaching.
At-Home Easter Retreat for Preachers (2022, Free!)
With help from Joan Chittister, this year's (free!) Easter Retreat for Preachers is intended to help unpack your over-stuffed spirit by entering the Easter story through an event that affected you. Designed to be done at home over ninety minutes, three hours or six, by the end you'll not only have encountered the risen Christ in a new way, you'll be able to enter this retreat as many times as you need until you find your way back to yourself.
Easter Preaching: Desire, Mystery, and Belonging (A Guest Post)
Following my deepest desire, following the path to be my most authentic self as I am created, almost always leads to the mystery of unknown outcomes, of uncertainty, of lack of closure. Belonging, in community, to God, with myself, has supported me through the mystery and returned me to desire over and over again.
BsP's Christmas Gift Guide for Preachers (2021 edition)
This year’s gift guide is intended to nudge the preacher’s creativity back to life—because creativity heals heart, mind, and soul.
Preach about Real Saints: Human and Holy
Why do we ignore the saints’ flaws or apologize for them as something shameful, faults to be hidden and tucked away? Preaching the truth of their humanity frees us from examining the messenger to embrace their message: love God, and forgive and love self and neighbor. Saints are the embodiment of that invitation to transformation. They show us what is possible when we accept and dwell in the love of God—in the fullness of our messy humanity. I am persuaded that by allowing saints to be holy and perfectly human, we can be transformed to be more like Christ.
“When have you been hurt by racism?”
Sometimes our bodies have a chronic problem that requires chronic physical therapy. Racism is a chronic problem of our hearts that also requires chronic treatment. I call this treatment “chronic spiritual therapy” that we engage together as the Body of Christ.
Because the whole Body has been hurt.
Prepare Yourself for Stewardship Season
Just as we were settling back into in-person worship, with or without also offering a digital version, the Delta variant of COVID is surging faster than the original version, especially among the unvaccinated. Just when the future was starting to feel a bit more predictable and certain, it’s even harder to put the emotional genies back in the bottle again. Who knows what all of this will mean for parish attendance, involvement, or financial giving? And how do we even begin to ask people to be generous with their time, talent, or treasure in a way that doesn’t sound insensitive to the very real uncertainties for the months ahead?
Preaching Hope (A Guest Blog)
From Dr. Rob O’Lynn’s guest post: “Full confession: I am a sucker for hope. I think St. Paul got it wrong. At the end of his famous meditation on love, he writes this: “And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor. 13:13, NRSV). I do not dispute the importance that the apostle gives to these three virtues, virtues which serve as the core of Christianity’s ethical expression. I disagree with him on which one he thinks is most important. Hope can outlast love.”
Preaching to Insignificant Specks? Maybe. Maybe Not.
One event from one photo gets interpreted by two people. Those two people experience a shift in understanding. The new understanding becomes part of their backstory. Their backstory then influences their preaching.
Our backstories are always preaching. That’s what it means to be human. Are we aware of what it’s preaching?
Ministry Generalist or Preaching Specialist? Know Your Call
Discerning the priorities God has called you to will help all—family, parishioners, leadership, you—establish proper expectations for your time, preaching, and ministry involvement.