Christmas List

Care of the Soul and Call to Sacred Activism

"It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.
The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the church's mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything.
It may be incomplete; but it is a beginning, a step along the way,
An opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.
This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something, and to do it very well."

-Bishop Ken Untener of Saginaw

Overwhelmed

It has been too long. Since the last time I posted I've conducted a youth auction grossing $65,000, helped lead a team of 100 on a house building project in Tijuana, Mexico, and started my MDiv. at Mars Hill Graduate School in Belltown, Seattle.

I won't reflect beyond that, and to say that I need to work on articulating my life. Here, at least, is the best way for me to describe all the hope and excitement of my new education. More to follow on the rest of life.


mhgs what no. 2 from blaine hogan on Vimeo.