The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
This week there has been no Sea Cadets for me (except some admin that I help with) but no time with cadets after the previous week’s camp. They had a good time – and yes water was part of many of the events –…
Tag: Thought for the Week
The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost
At my first congregation we had the experience of the Queensland Dept of Health closing the site – we had a church, child care centre, and parsonage there – and then a summary closure in a matter of hours – everything shut (except for…
The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
I oscillate between feeling that after nearly 40 years I think I’m getting the hang of being a pastor through to wondering when will I ever learn how to be a pastor?! I think I’m too arrogant to have too much of an imposter…
The Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
I’m not a fan of needles. I know they exist to do a job and that job is invariably in my best interests so I have needles when required. They hurt momentarily in the big scheme of things. This week I gave blood and…
The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
In the world of manuscripts, papyri and scrolls, material before the printing press, I have mentioned on numerous occasions that I’d like to be the one who wandering some cave or antique store in Turkey came across a pretty well preserved copy of the…
The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
When you’re preaching you want to communicate and concentrate on the message – getting it right – while seeing faces looking in your direction and you notice reactions even as you’re moving on to the next point. I still remember the first time I…
The Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
These days, my car tells me what’s wrong and if the signal lights are red I’m supposed to take notice! Ok, the light was orange, the buzzer noisy, and I could read the words about the tyre pressure (low). I use my car a…
The Third Sunday after Pentecost
It is nice to keep learning; to gain a new insight; to grow in understanding. That happened to me at Pastors’ Study Week this past week on a few occasions. The pastors bring their experiences and perspectives, our book study (Jonathan Haidt’s ‘The Anxious…
The Second Sunday after Pentecost
I finished transferring all our family dates – births, baptisms, anniversaries, deaths – onto our 2025 calendar this week and included some dear friends and events we don’t want to forget. Ok, I started it in January (!) but only did up to February…