Greatheart's Table: Recent Episodes
Randall R. Greenwald
Hello, everyone. Welcome once again to Greatheart’s Table, the podcast for pastors and those who care for them. This one has a provocative title, to say the least, one which is disconcerting no matter how you read it.
I am using this week’s space to explain and to frame a new feature of Greatheart’s Table which will exist on the podcast side only. I’m quite excited about this and hope that you will be as well.
This episode includes references to a lot of songs, which can be found in a convenient Spotify playlist linked in the notes below.
I encourage you podcast listeners to also subscribe to the Greatheart’s Table newsletter on Substack, as there are features there that do not appear on the podcast side.
And I hope all of you will take the time to rate and review the podcast and to tell others about it.
Thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table.
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
https://greatheartstable.substack.com/p/zombies-and-the-people-of-grace
Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.
Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / Lyrics
Outro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
With this episode we doing something different. We are going to hear from someone else around the table.
For quite a while I’ve appreciated the writing of Adam Tisdale as he has urged me with his newsletter he calls “Double the Joy” to be more grateful for the small things in my life.
Adam’s the pastor of North Hills Church in Meridianville, Alabama where he has served since 2009. He’s also quite adept at creating beauty with stained glass.
I asked Adam to share some of his thoughts on pastoral ministry. I’m thrilled to offer those to you.
Remember to review and rate what we do here, and, as always, thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table.
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
2 Timothy 2:6 was brought to my attention, afresh, through my reading of Jonathan Dodson’s encouraging book for pastors, The Unwavering Pastor: Leading the Church with Grace in Divisive Times, (United States: Good Book Co., 2022).
When you buy a book using a link on this page, Greatheart’s Table receives a commission. Thank you for supporting this work!
Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.
Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / Lyrics
Outro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
Thanks for joining us here at Greatheart’s Table, the podcast for pastors and those who need therapists.
Well, that’s not exactly the tag line we normally use, but we’ve been touching on a common thread over the past several episodes that could make it plausible.
I’ve written these posts to help us all think through our biases and to tease our our assumptions about how we engage therapy, counseling, and the mental and relational needs of our congregations. Thanks for sticking with me.
After this episode, we’re going to let this theme rest.
Do take some time to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast and, most importantly, to encourage others to listen. This is the only way others will know we are here!
Thanks for joining us!
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
Harrison Scott Key, How to Stay Married: the Most Insane Love Story Ever (United States: Simon and Schuster, 2023), p. 2.
When you buy a book using a link on this page, Greatheart’s Table receives a commission. Thank you for supporting this work!
Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.
Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / Lyrics
Outro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
If you are new to Greatheart’s Table, I suggest you dial back to listen to episode #67 titled “Mr. Greatheart and This Metaphorical Table.” That will explain what we are trying to do here, and where the title comes from.
I post a new episode three Mondays of each month, and though usually each episode is self-contained, sometimes, like with this one, in which I suggest that pastors mollify the prejudice that many have against what might be called “secular” therapy, there is a thematic connection to what has come before or will come after. So please subscribe. And if you find value here, please rate and review it.
As always, thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table.
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
“Attitudes of Religious Leaders Toward Integrating Psychology and Church Ministry“
Adam S. Hodge and Joshua N. Hook, University of North Texas; Don E. Davis, Georgia State University; Mark R. McMinn, George Fox University.
Though I think I could make a reasonable stab at distinguishing the words “therapy” and “counseling” for my purposes they are the same.
I consider “secular” as in quotation marks because often our judgments of what that means are blurry. It’s sometimes used to minimize the legitimacy of approaches outside of a particular Christian culture, which is unfair. For my purposes, it refers to a perspective that does not directly arise from theistic convictions.
Here, too, there is a distinction of labeling. Counselors tend to have clients and therapists tend to have patients and the distinction is immaterial to me.
Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.
Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / Lyrics
Outro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
Although I write Greatheart’s Table with pastors in mind, the content is often widely applicable. Perhaps I should promote this as being “for pastors and those who have pastors.”
In the case of this episode, a reset of one first released on July 12, 2021, the thought really does apply beyond pastors, as we consider what happens when pastors grow and change in the course of their ministry.
If you like what you find here, please rate and review this podcast, and if you are able support it on Patreon. Also, we encourage you to subscribe at Substack so that you can receive next week’s Third Monday post which is print only.
Thanks for joining us!
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
John Webster, Christ Our Salvation, (United States: Lexham Press, 2020), p. 91, 94, 95
John 3:8 suggests that the Holy Spirit is sometimes unconcerned about the predictable and consistent. There, Jesus says, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
When you buy a book using a link on this page, Greatheart’s Table receives a commission. Thank you for supporting this work!
Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.
Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / Lyrics
Outro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
One of our goals here around Greatheart’s Table, insidious to some, simply subversive to others, is to broaden the way pastors think. It’s good for our thoughts to be seeded now and then with outside ways of looking at the world. That can be frightening at times, of course, but it needn’t be. God has put truth in strange and unexpected places, and it can be a joy to discover it. Thanks for joining me on this journey.
If you like what you hear, please rate and review Greatheart’s Table, and, if you are able, support it at Patreon. Most of all share this podcast with others. Let’s be subversive together.
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are, (United States: Hazelden Publishing, 2010).
C. S. Lewis, “The Inner Ring”, in The Weight of Glory, (United States: Harper One, 2015).
The fear of common grace can lead some to force their content into a Christian mold. Psychiatrist Curt Thompson has written several good books on the themes of neurology and mental health that overlap at some places those written by Brené Brown. Thompson clearly writes for a Christian audience and is published by a Christian publisher. It feels to me that he forces Bible passages into his content, which ultimately detracts from the force of what he is saying. Given the insights of common grace, his content should be able to stand alone.
When you buy a book using a link on this page, Greatheart’s Table receives a commission. Thank you for supporting this work!
Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.
Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / Lyrics
Outro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
With this episode I begin a series of four which in one way or another considers the relationship between pastoral ministry and clinical counseling. In so doing I wade into water some might call hot. I know that what I will suggest will not be shared by others. Still, there are things here that I’d like us to at least think about. That’s what people do around a table – we share ideas.
Whether you agree with me or not, if you find value in joining us at the table, please rate and review this podcast. I’m not sure how the algorithms work, but I’m told it’s helpful.
And as always, thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table.
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression, (United States: Scribner, 2015), p. 111.
A concern for another day is to address the opposite problem: pastors passing off the regular pastoral responsibility of being compassionate listeners and offering attentive presence.
When you buy a book using a link on this page, Greatheart’s Table receives a commission. Thank you for supporting this work!
Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.
Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / Lyrics
Outro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
This episode is one of what I call a ‘reset.’ I regularly re-post older episodes like this one which was originally released in July of 2021. I think it is still relevant.
One of the things I want to do with Greatheart’s Table is to encourage pastors, as one friend put it, “to be comfortable in their own skin.” That’s not easy when American Christian culture is telling us that there is a one-sized fits all model for the “successful” pastor.
God has made you you and has given you to his church. Now go be you.
Thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table.
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
C. S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair, (United States: HarperCollins Publishers, 1981), p. 69.
I have an ambivalent relationship with Whitefield in particular and the Great Awakening in general which may explain my rather Puddleglummish approach here. You can read about that here.
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
This Tenant sermon is summarized here. Full text is available here.
When you buy a book using a link on this page, Greatheart’s Table receives a commission. Thank you for supporting this work!
Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.
Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / Lyrics
Outro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
We’re spending a couple of weeks thinking about the idea of love, both for God and for others, and if you want to be a part of the conversation, feel free to email me. Or, you can head over to Substack where the same content shows up in print form and interact there.
Please rate and review this podcast, and tell others about it. That’s really the only way others will know this exists. And if you are able to support what we do here, you can become a patron at Patreon. It’s very helpful and deeply appreciated.
Thanks for joining us!
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
Edward M. Hallowell and John J. Ratey, ADHD 2.0: New Science and Essential Strategies for Thriving with Distraction–From Childhood Through Adulthood (United States: Ballantine Books, 2022), p. 55.
Kevin DeYoung, “Jesus, Friend of Sinners: But How?”
Jonathan Merritt, “Setting the record straight on Jesus, ‘the friend of sinners’”
Christine Pohl carefully addresses concerns of danger and friendship in her book on Christian hospitality: Christine D. Pohl, Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition, (United States: Eerdmans, 1999).
Vivek Murthy, “We Have Become a Lonely Nation.”
Gail Honeyman, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, (United States: Penguin Books, 2018).
When you buy a book using a link on this page, Greatheart’s Table receives a commission. Thank you for supporting this work!
Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.
Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / Lyrics
Outro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
I’ve noticed over the years that it is somehow easy for Christians to become rather cynical about the idea of ‘love.’ The word and the idea have been used in overly sentimental ways, of course, but I sometimes wonder if the distance some put between themselves and the word comes from fear of the idea itself. To love at times may mean a loss of control, something repugnant to many. Anyway, I want to spend a couple weeks thinking about the place of love in the life of the Christian.
If you find this podcast helpful, please rate and review it, and, most importantly, pass it along to others. There’s always more room around Greatheart’s Table!
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
Dan Allender, Bold Love (United States: NavPress, 1992). (I swear this anecdote is in this book, though try as I might now, I can’t find it.)
Galatians 1:24; Ephesians 6:24
When you buy a book using a link on this page, Greatheart’s Table receives a commission. Thank you for supporting this work!
Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.
Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / Lyrics
Outro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
This is another one of our resets, episodes that aired some time ago which I’m re-recording and posting to allow me some space to catch up on other projects.
My son Seth is an artist, a musician, and a wise observer of my spiritual vulnerabilities. He knows the kinds of metrics I use to measure my worth, and he has the courage to call me out on it when I do. Repeatedly. So he was doing when this episode first aired in June of 2021. I share it again because we all need to be called out when we fail to find our worth solely in the eyes of the Chooser.
As always, thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table.
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
Gordon MacDonald, Ordering Your Private World (United States: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1984). Soon after I read the book, MacDonald’s own private world was revealed to be a mess. Nevertheless, the book has value.
When you buy a book using a link on this page, Greatheart’s Table receives a commission. Thank you for supporting this work!
Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.
Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / Lyrics
Outro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
Quite a few of you are new and may be uncertain of what we’re doing here or why, and many may wonder where the name comes from. For all such mysteries, I recommend that you scroll back and listen to episode 67 called “Mr. Greatheart and This Metaphorical Table.”
And if that doesn’t answer your questions, shoot me an email.
No doubt you’ve heard of a little thing called “Artificial Intelligence.” Companies and churches and, yes, pastors are scrambling to ask AI “what can you do for me.” In this episode I wonder if that is the right question to be asking.
Thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table.
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
Here is info about Gloo.
I’ve mentioned Gloo before here and here.
Here is the article about Gloo’s “hackathon.”
Mike Sacasas is much smarter, better read, and more articulate than I. Also, his posts are much longer than mine. He writes from within an orthodox Christian tradition, but he writes into a space that does not assume that tradition.
This post on technological liturgies gives a feel for the direction in which his thinking goes, as does this post on asking the right questions.
Neil Postman, Building a Bridge to the 18th Century: How the Past Can Improve Our Future, (United States: Vintage, 2000), p. 55.
When you buy a book using a link on this page, Greatheart’s Table receives a commission. Thank you for supporting this work.
Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.
Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / Lyrics
Outro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
In this episode, we take a somber turn, and consider pastoral grief. I can’t recall this being addressed elsewhere, and yet as I’ve thought about it, it’s hard to think of a more consistent theme pulsing across the pastoral landscape than loss and the consequent experience of grief. My concern is what we do with all that grief.
Feel free to email me questions or comments. If you like what you find here, please review and rate it and, pass it along to others. Greatheart’s Table is free, of course, but we appreciate the support we get at Patreon.com.
Thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table.
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.
Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / Lyrics
Outro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
I write Greatheart’s Table with pastors in mind, but I know that often the themes I address apply much more broadly, and so many of you are not pastors at all. This post, aimed towards sharpening pastoral ethical standards, nevertheless lands broadly. As Christians, not just as pastors, who we are may be far more important than what we accomplish.
I encourage you to sign up for the Substack newsletter which parallels this podcast, as next week the third Monday post will show up only there.
And if you are able to support this work, know that it would be greatly appreciated. Links for all of this are below.
Thanks again for listening in to the conversation around Greatheart’s Table.
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
The Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Pastoral Code of Ethics of the National Association of Evangelicals
Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.
Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / Lyrics
Outro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
This episode is another reset, one that first aired in June of 2021, and it addresses a theme I’ve often returned to: the need for pastors and others in ministry to have friends.
As I get older and my friends move away or in other ways my friendships change I’m reminded of how difficult finding and keeping real friends can be. Nevertheless, as this post reminds us, the need is real lest we become strange and crotchety or worse.
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
Patrick O’Brian, The Ionian Mission (United States: W. W. Norton & Company, 1992), p. 166.
If I make frequent references to these books it is because O’Brian’s insight into humanity is so rich. It’s also because I’m a fan.
When you buy a book using a link on this page, Greatheart’s Table receives a commission. Thank you for supporting this work!
Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.
Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / Lyrics
Outro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
Hello, all. I’m Randy Greenwald and I want to welcome you to Greatheart’s Table.
After the last episode, some have taken to addressing me “Whiney Pastor.” Given the positive response that that episode generated, I’m okay with that. Contrary to what some thought after listening, I’m doing fine. A key part of that fineness is the freedom to be honest as a pastor, and I have my friends and my church to thank for giving me that freedom.
This episode is another reset – it originally posted in June of 2021 and, ironically, it picks up this theme of the value of having friends with whom one can speak, and whine, honestly.
Thanks for listening. Be sure to rate, review, and most of all recommend Greatheart’s Table as you are able.
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
When I began ministry, a recommended book was Survival Tactics in the Parish published in 1977 by Lyle Schaller. Recently, 2016, my friend Michael Osborne published Surviving Ministry (Wipf and Stock). The theme in these titles is revealing.
It’s the peril of forced “quiet” that has led me to title this post and the next one after the movie “A Quiet Place” and its sequel. The reasons will be made clear in a future follow post to this one.
Harrison Scott Key, Congratulations, Who Are You Again? (United States: Harper Perennial, 2018), p. 125.
Books purchased using the links above help support Greatheart’s Table.
Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.
Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / Lyrics
Outro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
Welcome to Greatheart’s Table, the podcast for pastors and others who care about ministry. I’m Randy Greenwald, and, in the words of Firefly’s Malcolm Reynolds, “I aim to misbehave.”
Well, not much, really. I’m going to whine, and some may judge it to be in poor taste for a pastor to whine. But I disagree. Sometimes it is healthy, and we need to be given permission to indulge.
I’m delighted to have you listening. I encourage listeners also to subscribe to the written version found at Substack.com, as there is a third Monday post you might enjoy that shows up there. And if you’re able to support Greatheart’s Table at Patreon.com, that would be greatly appreciated.
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:30, 31)
1 Kings 19:10
External matters weary me as well. I’m tired of the way women or minorities or the vulnerable are treated in the church, for example. But then again, I’m tired of being expected to feel everything equally and all at once.
Books purchased using the links above help support Greatheart’s Table.
Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.
Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / Lyrics
Outro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
Today’s episode is what I am calling a ‘reset’. This one was written in early 2021 and released on May 24th of that year. We were a year into the pandemic, and deep into ongoing concerns regarding race. Pastors were weary of trying to hold polarized churches together.
That was three years ago. Our challenges may be different now, but they are no less difficult. The call to stay true through difficulty – “to run for your living”, to pursue all that makes ministry worthwhile, is still very relevant.
My hope is that Greatheart’s Table can be at least one encouragement to keep us all persevering in a difficult, yet noble and rewarding, calling.
Thanks for joining us.
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
The Russel Moore newsletter was found here.
Edwidge Danticat, Brother, I’m Dying (United States: Vintage, 2008)
Patrick O’Brian, The Truelove (United States: W. W. Norton & Company, 1993) p. 266, 277.
1 Corinthians 15:58
Books purchased using the links above help support Greatheart’s Table.
Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.
Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / Lyrics
Outro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
Hi! I’m Randy Greenwald, the host and ringleader of this this gang we call Greatheart’s Table.
That’s strange talk, I know. But in this episode I think about the associations we seek, the gangs we join, and the way in which those choices form, or deform, us.
If you are not a regular member of the Greatheart’s Table Gang, we hope you would join. Follow the podcast or subscribe to the newsletter, or both. We may not be the cool kids, but we do want to help you nurture this craft called pastoral ministry.
And here’s an offer you can’t refuse: Greatheart’s table is free.
But, if you are able to offer tangible support, you can do so at Patreon.com.
As always, thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table.
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
The info about gang motivations can be found here.
The essay on “The Inner Ring” is found here: C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory.
Books purchased using the links above help support Greatheart’s Table.
Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.
Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / Lyrics
Outro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
Hello, again! Welcome to Greatheart’s Table, a place for pastors and others to hang out, talk, and reflect on ministry and life. I’m Randy Greenwald.
My favorite Narnian character is Puddleglum, the marshwiggle. I’m so fond that it’s a surprise that I didn’t name this podcast “Puddleglum’s Pad” or something like that. You can read his story in The Silver Chair. Puddleglum always expected the worst to happen, but pressed on to do the right thing anyway. In this episode I’d like to consider the good and the bad of our puddleglummish tendencies.
And if you like what you find here, please follow, rate, and review, and if you are able, some support this work at Patreon.com.
As always, thanks for joining us around Puddleglum’s Pad.
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
The Atlantic article on subjective age can be found here.
.
Books purchased using the links above help support Greatheart’s Table.
Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.
Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / Lyrics
Outro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
Though pastors don’t need more people telling us what to do, my concern in what I write is, more often than not, a desire to shape the pastoral attitude that underlies pastoral practice.
In this case, I want us to consider how we respond to the sin in those we care for. Since we always pastor with others looking over our shoulders, the pressure to look decisive in the face of sin can overwhelm a proper impulse toward patience and compassion. I know the pressure. I suspect you do as well.
If you like what you hear, please rate and review this podcast, and if your finances allow, please support it at Patreon.com.
Thanks for listening.
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
Frederick Backman, A Man Called Ove: A Novel (United States: Atria Books, 2014).
Yes, it is “Ove,” not “Otto.” It’s odd to me that the name had to be changed for the American movie going audience.
Harrison Scott Key, How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told, (United States: Simon and Schuster, 2023).
.
Books purchased using the links above help support Greatheart’s Table.
Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.
Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / Lyrics
Outro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
Hello, everyone. Welcome to Greatheart’s Table, “a newsletter and podcast,” as one listener put it, “for pastors (or other leaders) challenging the unreachable expectations for modern pastors and encouraging them to be comfortable in their own skin.”
I’m not sure I could have explained this any better. I do encourage pastors and others to be comfortable with who they are, but many there are defining for us what that skin is to be, and some of it is not helpful. As John Stott reminds us, the only model for us is Christ.
If you like what you find here around Greatheart’s Table, do rate and review the podcast. And subscribe to the Greatheart’s Table newsletter at Substack.com for occasional bonus material.
Thanks for joining us!
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
Tim Chester, Stott on the Christian Life: Between Two Worlds (United States: Crossway, 2020).
The quote about boldness is attributed to Charles Spurgeon a 19th century London pastor. Spurgeon, though, like Mark Twain, Martin Luther, Winston Churchill, and a host of others, is often said to have said things he never really said. So, I am reticent to really burden him with this quote.
Quoted in George Marsden, Infinite Fountain of Light: Jonathan Edwards for the Twenty-First Century, (United States: Inter-Varsity Press, 2023), p. 121.
R. T. France, I Came to Set the Earth on Fire: a Portrait of Jesus, (United States: Inter-Varsity Press, 1975). It was also published as Jesus the Radical and has been republished under that title.
Books purchased using the links above help support Greatheart’s Table.
Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.
Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / Lyrics
Outro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
I invite, urge, and encourage all of you to subscribe to the print version of Greatheart’s Table. The content is the same as the podcast on the first, second, and fourth Monday. But on the third Monday of each month, when no podcast episode is released, I post on Substack a newsletter that addresses random shorter matters of interest. I want podcast listeners to receive this as well.
So, then, what about those bad sermons you’ve preached over the years? Let’s talk about those.
As always, thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table.
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Preaching and Preachers (United States: Zondervan, 1972).
D. B. Wyndham Lewis, The Stuffed Owl: An Anthology of Bad Verse (United States: New York Review of Books, 2003).
That we are but human is, for some of us, something that needs repeating. Two helpful recent books making this point are
Kate Bowler, No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) (United States: Random House, 2021) and Kelly M. Kapic, You’re Only Human: How Your Limits Reflect God’s Design and Why That’s Good News (United States: Brazos Press, 2022).
Books purchased using the links above help support Greatheart’s Table.
Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.
Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / Lyrics
Outro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
If you are new, I encourage you to dig deep into the archives and listen to episode one or episode 67. Both are an effort to explain who I am and what I’m trying to do.
And though this episode is about keeping secrets, if you like what you hear, I hope you don’t keep Greatheart’s Table a secret! Please encourage others to listen. And please follow, rate, and review this podcast. It all helps, as does your support through Patreon. We need all of that to continue.
And yes, this episode IS about the keeping of secrets, especially, the keeping of the wrong ones.
As always, thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table.
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
Exceptions, of course, apply to confidentiality. But even when you must reveal secrets, you do so with the full knowledge of the one who has shared them with you.
Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.
Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / Lyrics
Outro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics / Video
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
One of the themes we frequently address here around Greatheart’s Table is the reality of pastors leaving ministry. Often unaddressed in this discussion is the question of whether leaving ministry is a good thing, or even valid.
Yes, I’ve pastored for nearly forty years. But is that somehow more noble than the guy who after five years realizes his heart would be far happier leading expeditions into the Alaskan wilderness? It’s worth considering whether pastors have the freedom to quit. I think they do. I’d love to know what you think.
Thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table.
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
Podcast music provided by Cool Hand Luke and used with permission.
Intro: “Holy Vanguard” / Lyrics
Outro: “Wonder Tour” / Lyrics
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
With this episode, we near the end of our working through the book Stott on the Christian Life. It can at times be a challenge to follow Jesus as lord. But not because Jesus’ yoke is heavy. The challenge sometimes comes from our friends. We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on […]
With this episode, I’d like to introduce you to the music of Mark Nicks and Cool Hand Luke. After nearly 100 episodes with Over the Rhine, whose generosity has been great, it was time for a change. A podcast, like the church, requires the contributions of many gifts to make it work, and I’m appreciative […]
Warmest greetings to all of you from Florida, where it really never feels much like the Xmases I remember growing up! Nevertheless, this post is scheduled to go live on Christmas morning, and so from me to you, may your Christmas be blessed with all that is good and with all the hope that seeing […]
This episode is a sober one. When I addressed the reality of pastors exiting ministry a few episodes ago (episode 87), I sensed that my thoughts were incomplete. I felt that I needed to point churches in a direction that would help their pastors thrive instead of leave. Yes, that requires some adjustments to how […]
With this episode we continue our nearly completed walk through the book Stott on the Christian Life, and the topic here is a dicey one: Mercy. Thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table. We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. […]
In America, Thanksgiving was a few days ago. I hope it was a good day for you. I’m glad for at least one day in the year when my grumbly spirit is forced to be put on the shelf so I can practice some acts of gratitude. It would good if it happened more frequently. […]
Hi! I’m Randy Greenwald. Welcome to Greatheart’s Table. If you’re new around here, I recommend that you dive back into the archives and listen to episode #67. That’ll give you an idea about who I am and what we are all about here. Part of what we are about is to reframe pastoral expectations and […]
The line, “A priest and a pastor get pulled over for speeding . . .” sounds like it might be the start of a really bad joke. In truth, it happened to me and my friend Father David, once, and I still chuckle at the memory. In this episode, I want to continue thinking about […]
Welcome to Greatheart’s table. Pull up a chair as we continue to navigate our way through a study of the life and ministry of John Stott, not that we might BE John Stott, but that we might grow in our love for the church and ministry through him. I have realized recently that I need […]
I’ve been blessed. Throughout my life I’ve had friends. If you will forgive the Lord of the Rings reference, Frodo would never have succeeded in his quest without Sam and I certainly would not have succeeded in mine without the friends I’ve had along the way. There is a great deal written these days about […]
In listening to this, you are one of a countless multitude. Or countless trickle. All I know is that you are countless. I have no way of knowing who or how many you are. Nevertheless, it would be a great help and an encouragement if you would leave a rating or review of this with […]
I’m Randy Greenwald, the host of Greatheart’s Table! Pull up a seat and join us! We’re glad you are here. There is lots of room here. We don’t ask that we all agree on all things. In fact, we probably don’t. Around the edges we might disagree mightily. But that’s okay. I hope that the […]
Hello! I’m Randy Greenwald. Thanks for joining us here around Greatheart’s Table. If you find what we do here helpful, would you take a moment and review and/or rate the podcast? And pass the word on to others. Word of mouth is really the only means by which those who might benefit from what we […]
Hello, everyone. Welcome to Greatheart’s Table.
I have recently received some encouraging words from some of you, which is very meaningful as I trudge along over here. Some of you have had to walk through the flames and others through the valley, and to know that my words have been helpful and even hopeful is awesome. I’m grateful.
“Trudge” is an interesting word. Sometimes preachers step into the pulpit feeling like they are “walking slowly and with heavy steps . . . because of exhaustion or harsh conditions,” which is the meaning of the word. Those who trudge need to be reminded of God’s grace. This goes for the preacher, and those to whom preachers speak.
Thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table.
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast, and perhaps pick up some perks, by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
Barbara Tuchman, Practicing History: Selected Essays (United States: Ballantine Books, 1982), p. 247, 248
“May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.” (2 Thessalonians 3:5)
Fleming Rutledge, Advent: The Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ (United States: Eerdmans Publishing, 2018). Kindle Location 713.
“The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in anguish and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores. They did not repent of their deeds.” (Revelation 16.10, 11)
Podcast music provided by Over the Rhine, and used with permission.
Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
Hi, there. It’s kind of you to stop by Greatheart’s Table.
If you are new, know that Greatheart’s Table is published on the first, second, and fourth Mondays of each month, both in print and audio.
On the third Monday a more newsy edition is published in print only. Greatheart’s Table is about more than this podcast. We are sponsoring, among other things, a retreat for parents whose adult children have wandered from the faith. I’d love for listeners to be aware of these things, but for this you’ll need to subscribe. I promise – this will not be a hassle. I just want you to be in the loop. Links are below.
For this episode, we want to pull back the curtain on what pastors do. Pastors sometimes wonder whether what they do matters at all.
It does.
Thanks for joining us.
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast, and perhaps pick up some perks, by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
The reference to ‘Chloe’s people’ is in 1 Corinthians 1:11, and to the fact that ministry is not in vain is in 1 Corinthians 15:58.
Regarding logic ruling out belief in what we cannot see, Lewis has this to say: “Nothing is more probable,” said the Professor, taking off his spectacles and beginning to polish them, while he muttered to himself, “I wonder what they do teach them at these schools.” C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (United States: HarperCollins Publishers, 1978), p. 50.
Podcast music provided by Over the Rhine, and used with permission.
Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
Hi! Welcome! I’m Randy Greenwald, the host of Greatheart’s Table. Thanks for dropping by! We have been occasionally considering the various issues addressed in Tim Chester’s book Stott on the Christian Life. Stott is one of my ministry heroes, and Chester’s book digs in to some of what set his ministry apart. In this case, […]
Hello, again! Thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table. If you’re new – and many of you are – I welcome you. If you find something of worth here, please invite others to join in. Rate this on your podcast platform and leave a review. It’s all helpful. As well, I depend on the patronage […]
The tone of this episode is a bit darker than ordinary, and the length a tad longer. A line from the Bee Gees’ song “Words” keeps bouncing around in my head. “This world has lost its glory, let’s start a brand new story.” The reputation of pastors has lost its glory, and perhaps the start […]
As many of you know, I’ve been riffing on the pastoral themes arising from a study of the life and ministry of the Twentieth Century London pastor John Stott. Continuing that, then, in this episode we consider the matter of change. It was early in my ministry when I realized two related things. First, that […]
Of all the podcasts, in all the streaming services, in all the world, you’ve walked into mine. And I’m grateful! The words “Play it again, Sam” are often quoted from, but are actually never spoken in, the movie Casablanca. But that is what I’ve been doing for several weeks, resetting, re-recording, and re-posting a few […]
As most know, I’ve been re-recording and re-airing the earliest Greatheart’s Table episodes. This spate of “early summer” reruns is allowing me to catch up on life. I hope these have felt fresh to you. They have to me. This one encourages us to assess what we do not from the concepts of success or […]
Thanks for joining us at Greatheart’s Table. I’m Randy Greenwald, the over-committed host. I say that not to garner sympathy – I do these things to myself – but to explain why I am re-recording and re-airing the early content from the Greatheart’s Table archives. Doing so is giving me a break to help me […]
As I’ve explained at the Greatheart’s Table Patreon and Substack pages, both of which are linked below, I am for a few episodes re-recording and reposting the earliest content from the early months of Greatheart’s Table’s existence. When I released this one to the world I was a bit concerned about the use of the […]
For a short time I am re-recording and re-releasing the earliest content of Greatheart’s Table. For an explanation of ‘why’ you can read the May Third Monday post at the Greatheart’s Table Substack or Patreon page. The links are below.
As I reread this episode on the expectation that pastors “run” a church, I wondered if this is why in some cases churches take on an undesirable corporate feel. It is certainly one reason pastors burnout, trying to do something they must, but for which they feel ill-equipped.
Thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table.
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast, and perhaps pick up some perks, by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
That I see a therapist may unsettle your opinion of me from the outset. I hope it doesn’t. I’ll let it stand here simply as evidence of my own brokenness. It may, however, have something significant to say about the pastoral office itself. We’ll explore that later.
Eugene Peterson, The Contemplative Pastor (United States: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1989), p. 59.
Podcast music provided by Over the Rhine, and used with permission.
Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
If you’ve been listening, you will notice a different audio quality in this episode. I’m sorry about that! It was unavoidable, but should be fixed by the next release.
As GHT is published on the first, second, and fourth Mondays, there will be no audio produced next week, a third Monday. But I urge listeners to subscribe to Greatheart’s Table at Substack (or to support us at Patreon). That will link you up with a special, more newsy, print-only Third Monday post that will have a number of updates, some important, regarding what’s going on in the GHT Universe.
In this episode, then, we revisit the question of what motivates perseverance in ministry. Do we do ministry for the fun of it? Or for something else? I’ll be interested in what you think.
Thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table.
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast, and perhaps pick up some perks, by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
Scripture is from Genesis 3:19
Podcast music provided by Over the Rhine, and used with permission.
Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
Those of you who are new to Greatheart’s Table might benefit from listening to February’s post #67, “Mr. Greatheart and This Metaphorical Table,” to orient yourselves to what we’re doing here and why. Also if you’d like to support this work, you can do so on my Patreon page (link below). The most helpful thing you can do is rate the podcast and tell others!
It’s been my experience that insight and motivation for what I do as a pastor often comes from surprising places. In fact, I’d say it’s a good thing for pastors to put themselves in those surprising places to see what God does. As Tommy Lee Jones apparently did not say but which is worth hearing anyway, “Trust the pie.”
Thanks for joining us.
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast, and perhaps pick up some perks, by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
Perhaps a movie in which the earth is infested by aliens, monitored by a secret government agency, does not fit your particularly likes. But really, “Men in Black 3” a good movie!
“Rapid unexpected disassembly are the now famous words of the SpaceX engineer describing a rocket which, to the rest of the world, simply exploded.
I spoke about the dulcimer festival in a previous post and https://greatheartstable.com/2023/02/13/68-the-insecure-pastor/
Podcast music provided by Over the Rhine, and used with permission.
Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
The life of a pastor can be one of constantly giving out. If we are not taking in we soon have nothing left to give.
As we continue to work through the themes of Tim Chester’s book Stott on the Christian Life, we have an occasion to consider just what it is with which we need to be filled if we are to be settled and stable for the long, hard work of ministry. I’d love to know what you think.
There are a plethora of notes for this one – if you are a ‘show notes’ kind of person. Also in the show notes you will find ways to support Greatheart’s Table.
Thanks for stopping by!
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast, and perhaps pick up some perks, by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
Jeffrey D. Arthurs, Preaching as Reminding: Stirring Memory in an Age of Forgetfulness (United States: IVP Academic, 2017).
Tim Chester, Stott on the Christian Life: Between Two Worlds (United States: Crossway, 2020).
Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ (United States: Eerdmans Publishing, 2017).
John Stott, The Cross of Christ (United States: InterVarsity Press, 2006).
I did hear the gospel at these happy exceptions: Lake Nona Presbyterian Church and Harbor Community Church.
“The Lord’s Supper, which was instituted by Jesus, and which is the only regular commemorative act authorized by him, dramatizes neither his birth nor his life, neither his words nor his works, but only his death. Nothing could indicate more clearly the central significance that Jesus attached to his death. It was by his death that he wished above all else to be remembered. There is then, it is safe to say, no Christianity without the cross. If the cross is not central to our religion, ours is not the religion of Jesus.” John Stott, The Cross of Christ (United States: InterVarsity Press, 2006), p. 71.
Podcast music provided by Over the Rhine, and used with permission.
Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
When the daughter of an engineer runs away from home, or the son of a school teacher gets his girlfriend pregnant, no one at the parents’ places of employment gives the situation more than a nod of sympathy. Pastors, though, may live in fear that such things will cost them their jobs.
In this episode we discuss the terrible burden this places on pastors and, as well, on pastors’ children.
Before we do, I remind you that there are more things going on with Greatheart’s Table than can easily fit into a podcast. So please head over to our Patreon or Substack pages and check out one of our recent Third Monday posts. We have live events happening and a retreat in the works. Good stuff!
Thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table.
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast, and perhaps pick up some perks, by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
Both lyrics are from the song “Wait for It” from the musical Hamilton, written by Lin Manuel Miranda.
Stacy Schiff, The Witches: Salem, 1692 (United States: Little, Brown, and Company, 2015), p. 20.
1 Timothy 3:4 and Titus 1:6. To Timothy Paul gives the rationale for this: “. . . for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church?”
George W. Knight, III, Commentary on the Pastoral Epistles (United States: William B. Eerdmans Publishers, 1992).
Podcast music provided by Over the Rhine, and used with permission.
Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
Welcome again to Greatheart’s Table.
Someone asked me the other day to recommend a good, inspiring biography.
I find that hard to do. Biographies are written by or about people I could never hope to be. I find them fascinating, but they can as well leave me feeling small and insignificant.
It’s the stories of ordinary people that most encourage me, and about these people biographies are rarely written.
And so with this episode, I’m posting one man’s sketch of his father that I’ve found in the past deeply moving. I trust you will find it the same.
Please if you get a chance wander over to the Greatheart’s Table Patreon page and considering supporting this work. I’m grateful to all of you who’ve been able to do so.
But really, I’m grateful for all of you who join us around Greatheart’s Table.
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast, and perhaps pick up some perks, by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
Podcast music provided by Over the Rhine, and used with permission.
Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
Hi. Thanks for dropping by Greatheart’s Table.
There is a LOT going on with Greatheart’s Table which cannot be crammed into the few seconds I have here. To get the full scoop, head over to the Patreon page and read the recent Third-Monday post. There you will hear about how to get plugged into a live gathering of the Greatheart’s Table community which happens THIS FRIDAY.
Also, you will learn there about an upcoming retreat on what I call “Off-Script Kids.” I want many to be aware of that.
I hope you check these things out.
That aside, in this episode, we follow the lead of John Stott into considering the seriousness of preaching the word of God.
It’s important to confront, in a hopefully good and necessary way, that preaching is scary.
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast, and perhaps pick up some perks, by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
Tim Chester, Stott on the Christian Life: Between Two Worlds (United States: Crossway, 2020).
Certainly Stott would not have been the only one championing expository preaching, but his place on the worldwide stage, Chester suggests, was transformative.
The theme of a text is given various other identifying names, such as “thesis,” “big idea,” or “proposition.”
Warnings are from Job 38:1, 2 and James 3:1ff.
Podcast music provided by Over the Rhine, and used with permission.
Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
Welcome to Greatheart’s Table.
My name is Randy Greenwald, and I’m a fool. Or at least I hope I am. And if that seems to be a weird aspiration, I hope you listen to this episode, with it’s nod to one William Shakespeare. I hope you find wisdom in the consideration of the fool.
I also hope you will become a patron. Next week is a third monday, and though there will be no new episode posted here, there will be an update posted at the Greatheart’s Table Patreon page. I hope you can get over there, become a patron, and help support this work.
There are some new initiatives afoot that I’d like all to be a part of. I think they are good. But they may be foolish. I’ll let you be the judge.
As always, thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table.
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast, and perhaps pick up some perks, by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
Quotes from Dogberry are from William Shakespeare, Much Ado about Nothing, 5.1
There is little more joyful than to see this play performed live in small venues. Absent that, it can be enjoyed on screen through renditions produced by Kenneth Branagh or by Joss Whedon. Either is worth the time.
Podcast music provided by Over the Rhine, and used with permission.
Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
Sometimes I suppose I come across as if I’m intending to lay down the final word on some subject. That’s not meant to be the case. Well, I guess sometimes that’ what I’m thinking. But really, in general, my comments are meant to provoke thought. I welcome pushback or feedback.
Of course you can do that by shouting “Amen” or “That’s ridiculous” at your speakers. Or, you can email, or post comments at greatheartstable.substack.com.
Or, you can review this on whatever platform delivering this podcast to you.
Better still, encourage others to tune in.
But in all of this, as this episode suggests, try not to be snarky. Engagement, not insult, is always better and, in the end, more Christ-like.
Thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table.
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast, and perhaps pick up some perks, by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
Scriptures referenced: Job 12:2 and 15:2; Matthew 23:27 and Philippians 3:2; Acts 17:22-34; 1 Peter 3:13-17; Ephesians 4:1; Ephesians 4:29-32.
Greg Bahnsen, By This Standard (United States: Institute for Christian Economics, 1985).
I’m not against the clever use of language. I’m concerned for its target and intent. A good-natured jibe can be delivered with respect. In once debating apologetic method with R. C. Sproul, O. Palmer Robertson began his rebuttal, “The Sproul is more subtle than any other beast in the field.” Clever, pointed, and delivered among friends in a context in which his respect for Sproul was clear.
The quote from R. E. Lee reportedly spoken after the battle of Fredericksburg.
Podcast music provided by Over the Rhine, and used with permission.
Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
If you’re new with us and are curious who I am and what this is all about, dial back a few episodes and you’ll find one that will answer some of those questions for you. We’re glad to have you!
I’m beginning with this episode a discussion of the themes of a book about the ministry of British pastor John Stott. Stott was one deeply concerned that our ministries be thoughtful and reasonable. His model is challenging, and we need to think about that.
If you’ve not listened to my conversation with Pastor Brad Gray on his podcast, I encourage you to do so.
As always, thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table.
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast, and perhaps pick up some perks, by supporting us on Patreon. You can do so here.
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
The interview with Pastor Brad Gray can be heard here or wherever you like to get your podcasts. Search for “Ministry Matters.”
Here is the link to Hearts and Minds Books, and here to the quote.
The book we are reading is Tim Chester, Stott on the Christian Life: Between Two Worlds (United States: Crossway, 2020).
Chester suggests that Stott leans heavily on Harry Blamires’ 1963 book The Christian Mind. I don’t doubt that, but Blamires’ book is less a challenge to Christian thinking, as it is a lament that there is no shared Christian thought, no consensus on so many fundamental issues such as the nature of truth and authority. This fractured lanscape is as real today as it was then. I despair of there ever being such a thing as THE Christian Mind. Blamires’ book, though, is one we could all benefit from, if only to place within us a longing for a thing that may not come until the consummation.
Here we address only part of Stott’s concern. He was as well concerned to push back against an emotional form of Christianity that distrusted reason. That too remains important for our day.
“Groupie spirit,” a mindless rallying around a celebrity Christian which I’ve addressed previously.
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Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
This will be the final (probably) time I draw attention to the “Third-Monday” print edition. I hope you seek it out.
There are two ways to receive the Third-Monday post regularly. The first is to become a subscriber through Substack here. When you do this you will receive the print version of each episode along with the Third-Monday post, and a few other perks.
The second path is to become a patron of Greatheart’s Table on Patreon. You can do that here. There are a variety of levels of patronage available there, with the associated perks details.
Either way, I’m grateful. If you want to read more about this, you can read this month’s Third Monday post for free at either location.
You can help support Greatheart’s Table by becoming a patron here. Your support helps keep these posts free and accessible to all. Thanks!
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Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
It astounds me that there are so many of you who care about what I write, which in itself is an insight into this episode – the pastor’s insecurities. I’d be interested to know to what degree this resonates with you.
I want to remind you to subscribe to the newsletter as well so that you are not left off of the “Third Monday” posts that happen only there. You can follow the links below or you can head over to GreatheartsTable.com and follow the links there.
Thanks again for joining us around Greatheart’s Table.
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast by dropping a few coins in our tip jar. Thanks!
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
You can subscribe to the GHT Newsletter here.
Remember: it is never sufficient to think we can preach the gospel to ourselves.
Podcast music provided by Over the Rhine, and used with permission.
Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
Welcome to Greatheart’s Table. I’m Randy Greenwald, your host.
But wait, who is Randy Greenwald? And what right does he have to be broadcasting his thoughts across the internet? And what is he trying to accomplish anyway?
Those are all valid questions. Those who’ve been around since the beginning have an idea as to how these are answered. The rest of you, not so much.
So with this episode my intention is to provide some answers, to give some clarity to the direction and intention of Greatheart’s Table.
I hope it encourages you to hang around for the rest of what has, so far, been a pretty surprising, and for me enjoyable, ride.
We encourage you to also subscribe to our newsletter where, on third Mondays and at other times there may be additional content. You can do so here.
You can help support this podcast by dropping a few coins in our tip jar. Thanks!
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
Bradenton is a town I visited often as a child and to which I swore I’d never return. So of course God, in his own delightful way, led me to be what I was never to be in a town to which I was never to go.
The book that tells of this radical change, I should add, has been in fact written. If you know a publisher or agent who might be interested, I have a proposal to send!
Yes, you should read it. You can get Pilgrim’s Progress for free in various locations on the internet, but I encourage you to find a nice copy you can mark and revisit, such as this.
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Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
As kids we were asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Fire fighter may over time morph into teacher or engineer, or quarterback or president for the more ambitious.
Few probably say “pastor,” but look at you now! Here you are, and for the pastor I think there is yet a further question worth asking. “Who (not “what”) do you want to be when you grow up?” As you progress in ministry, who are your influences? Who are your models? Who would you be gratified to be like?
I think it’s a good question, and I genuinely hope God has given you models who shape who you are, and who you are becoming.
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EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
David Brooks introduced many to Stott in his 2004 New York Times opinion column in praise of Stott.
Later in his book The Second Mountain he speaks of Stott’s profound impact upon Brook’s reluctant and slow movement toward Christianity.
John R. W. Stott, Christian Mission in the Modern World (United States: InterVarsity Press, 1975).
John R. W. Stott, Between Two Worlds: The Art of Preaching in the Twentieth Century (United States: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1982).
John R. W. Stott, God’s New Society: the Message of Ephesians (United States: InterVarsity Press, 1979).
John R. W. Stott, Christian Counter-Culture (United States: InterVarsity Press, 1978).
John R. W. Stott, The Cross of Christ (United States: InterVarsity Press, 1986).
Tim Chester, Stott on the Christian Life: Between Two Worlds (United States: Crossway, 2020).
Podcast music provided by Over the Rhine, and used with permission.
Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
Welcome to Greatheart’s Table Third Monday Edition.
To check out the inaugural Third Monday post, you can go here. You will find links to subscribe at that site.
You can help support this podcast by dropping a few coins in our tip jar. Thanks!
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Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
In these short episodes I sometimes touch upon things that are worthy of much longer and deeper discussions. My self-imposed seven minute time limit doesn’t allow for consideration of a subject’s deeper implications or nuanced application.
That is especially true in this post, which is meant to be suggestive of some topics on which we will not all agree.
If you have thoughts you’d like to share, there is an email link in the show notes. Also, the newsletter version of these episodes, also linked there, provides ample space for comment.
And perhaps someday we’ll be able to add a “Greatheart’s Table Live” feature to provide some realtime interaction.
As always, thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table.
You can help support this podcast by dropping a few coins in our tip jar. Thanks!
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
I tossed it all except for “The Very Best of the Lovin’ Spoonful.” Even though John Sebastian had joined the debauchery that was Woodstock, this record was just too dear to me to throw out. John Denver also seemed to make the cut, which is odd to me. I can report that though sitting around the fire and passing the pipe around was his thing, it did not become mine, no matter how many times I listened.
The line “he shines in all that is fair” is from the title of Richard Moouw’s book on the subject of common grace, He Shines in All That’s Fair: Culture and Common Grace, itself taken from the hymn “This Is My Father’s World” by Maltbie D. Babcock.
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Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
When I was a young seminary student with no money and two children, I developed a pain the source of which eluded a couple of doctors until one asked me a question, “Have you been under any stress recently?” I nearly laughed in his face with the absurdity of the question given the reality of my situation.
Situations change, of course, but it seems in pastoral ministry, the stress remains. Sometimes we bring it on ourselves. In this episode I’d like to consider the degree to which a temptation to control rather than trust can amp up our stress to unnecessary levels.
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EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
“What a Friend we have in Jesus,” Joseph Scriven. Trinity Hymnal (United States: Great Commission Publications, 1991), p. 629.
As to Lloyd being “cool as a cucumber,” I like to imagine that “cumber” is related etymologically to “cucumber.” It’s probably not, but please don’t burst my fantasy with any facts to the contrary.
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Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
Perhaps I’m an old, Scroogish, curmudgeon, but though I enjoy Christmas, I’m always rather happy when it’s in the rear view mirror. It’s not just the extra work of extra services or the added stress of gifts and gatherings that gets to me. I think it’s the chaotic disruption of my routine. I’m kind of a fan of the ordinary rhythms of the everyday.
So, yes, I guess I’m that guy.
But at the same time, an affection for the ordinary might serve us well as pastors. Sometimes I think we need to learn to be okay with boring. I’d like to think a bit about that, with a Christmas bow tied around it.
So, thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table.
You can help support this podcast by dropping a few coins in our tip jar. Thanks!
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
Mary, Queen of the Universe.
To understand the Bedford Falls reference, sit down tonight with a bowl of popcorn and watch the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
The passages from Malachi come from chapter 3. The challenging ones who make us want to give up and run. My heart breaks for the many good pastors who have had to leave ministry because of them.
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Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
It’s since been fixed, but somehow the November 14 episode went live without the music. To my ear the whole episode lost life. It felt limp and empty. Releasing it in that way was a mistake, but it did remind me of how dependent I am upon Over the Rhine’s music, and ultimately how we all are dependent upon the gifts of others.
Everything that I say in these episodes has been shaped in me in some way by others. Sometimes those “others” are unlikely candidates for speaking into a pastor’s life, as is the case with this episode. But God loves to use the unlikely.
So, thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table.
You can help support this podcast by dropping a few coins in our tip jar. Thanks!
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel Assurance—Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters (United States: Crossway, 2016), p. 133.
Westminster Larger Catechism Q/A 145
And to hear John Candy deliver Del Griffith’s lines far better than I, listen here.
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Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
I hope you aren’t “burned out” on these episodes having to do with burnout.
Clearly the phrase is applicable to lots of situations – and that’s why I wonder if it might be better to think of this using the biblical phrase “losing heart.” That descriptor focuses our attention on the place where perseverance is born – and where it is lost.
I’m glad you’ve joined us around Greatheart’s Table.
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EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
More about Bill Mills can be found here.
Bill Mills and Craig Parro, Finishing Well in Life and Ministry: God’s Protection from Burnout (United States: Leadership Resources, 1997), p. 18.
J. H. Bavinck, An Introduction to the Science of Missions (United States: The Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1960), p. 45.
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Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
I have to confess that in many practical matters, I’m a slow learner. There are habits of wisdom and care to which I might be introduced on Tuesday which I’ve forgotten by Thursday. Changing behavior for me is a slow and sometimes traumatic process. Perhaps you’re different. I hope so.
As we continue to address pastoral perseverance, I know that some of what I am suggesting may require significant behavioral or cognitive adjustments. I also know that I’m not telling any of you anything new. It just may be that you, like me, need repeated reminders if change is going to stick. And I want it to stick.
Thanks for joining us around around Greatheart’s Table.
You can help support this podcast by dropping a few coins in our tip jar. Thanks!
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
M. Craig Barnes, The Pastor as Minor Poet (United States: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2009), p. 4. Other helpful resources are Eugene Peterson’s The Contemplative Pastor, which I’ve often recommended, and Zack Eswine’s The Imperfect Pastor.
The ‘rust out’ quote is discussed and dismissed by Bob Burns and his co-writers in their book Resilient Ministry (United States: InterVarsity Press, 2013), p. 61.
I have more to say about ministerial friendship here and here.
I do hear rumblings that friendship is being taken as a serious aspect of avoiding burnout. Consider here and here.
Of Charlotte, it was beautifully said, “It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both.” E. B. White, Charlotte’s Web (United States: HarperCollins Publishers, 1952), p. 184.
Podcast music provided by Over the Rhine, and used with permission.
Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
There is a community building up around what we do here, and I’m grateful for all of you who are a part of that. If you’d like to support Greatheart’s Table, I have three things to say: First, it’s needed – there are recurring expenses involved in putting this together! Second, it’s easy – there […]
Some of you may be new listeners, and I welcome you! Landing as you are, though, in what we could call the middle of an ongoing conversation, you may find some help in getting oriented by heading back in the archives and listening to episode one. The topic on the table currently is “burnout,” and […]
The subject under consideration is one that will occupy us for a while, one that is always haunting us around the edges, what is known popularly as burnout but which could also be called losing heart. Thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table. You can help support this podcast by dropping a few coins in […]
We all pastor, but our attachment to the work is not the same for all of us. Some of us love it, others of us do it, we all come to it with differing motives. Why is that? There are many tools out there designed to answer that question that are based upon genuine research […]
Welcome to Greatheart’s Table, a podcast for pastors and those who love them. I’ve been challenged recently to think about those for whom I write the podcast. Though my target is rather specific – primarily those in full-time church based pastoral ministry, I get a lot of positive response from those who are not in […]
One of the things people gathered around a table can do for each other is to listen to them and when able to help them reorient their lives toward proper expectations. If our kids are unruly, for example, we can talk about it with others who might remind us that they are kids and that […]
When I have had the opportunity to meet some of you, I’m been impressed with the fact that we are all so different. We are different as pastors, as people, as churches, but our hunger is the same: to do and to be what and who God desires of us. I hope these posts help […]
Pastoral ministry can pose many riddles for the pastor. But in this episode, I’d like to pose one ABOUT the pastor. If you are able to help support Greatheart’s Table, you can use the link below. Of course, there is no obligation to do so. Also, do review this podcast and if you could pass […]
Rick Blaine, Humphrey Bogart’s tough skinned character from the movie Casablanca is both idealistic and deeply cynical. Rick lets no one close and expects life to end poorly, and yet he relinquishes what is most precious to him for the sake of others. He’s hard not to admire. It was life that led Rick into […]
I’ve been called an idealist since I was a teenager, and the truth is, I’ve not outgrown it. My thinking these days is that we should not need to. In some ways it is the shelving of our pastoral ideals that has caused malaise for many of us.In this post I want to consider how […]
Welcome to Greatheart’s Table, a podcast for pastors and those who care for them. I hope you won’t mind a bit of shameless promotion. First, if you like this podcast, please subscribe. Better yet, subscribe to the podcast and then go to GreatheartsTable.com and subscribe to the newsletter as well. The content is the same, […]
Hi! Welcome to Greatheart’s Table! I may be technically the ‘host’ of this podcast, I’m as much a participant as a producer. What you might hear me say is more likely than not to be what I myself need to hear. There really is a parity around this table. As pastors we need each other, […]
I’ve often wondered what the devotional lives of my spiritual mentors were really like. I realize they never would really talk about it. Perhaps they were reticent to parade their acts of piety before others, and I get that. But the result is that I am left to imagine what the prayer lives of godly […]
Since this post is being released on July 4, I have the Beatles floating around in my head:“You say you want a revolution – we all want to change the world.” I want to give some thought to that. We do want to change the world. But if we are honest, we realize how naïve […]
Welcome to Greatheart’s Table. I’m honored you would join me here. I remember reading about British pastor David Martyn Lloyd-Jones reading something like the complete works of John Owen while he was “on holiday” as they say. I certainly don’t spend my vacation time doing that. Or haven’t. Maybe I should. I don’t know. Am […]
Recent days have been hard and have driven much conversation and introspection. Many are asking, as I do in this post, what is wrong, particularly what is wrong with the church. In my experience such considerations fail to take seriously Paul’s caution in 1 Corinthians 13. We can be a church with all our theological […]
I mentioned in an earlier episode that I’m no great theologian. In fact, even though my only published book is a book of theology, I would reserve the title ‘theologian’ for others with greater credentials and stature. However, in this post I’d like to posit an attribute of God that no one ever talks about. […]
A man once told me that the parish to which he was being called was a good place for someone who wanted to be lazy. I have a hard time processing that. I suppose I don’t know enough lazy pastors. Most of those I know work very hard and besides the damage to their bodies […]
Hi! Welcome to May around Greatheart’s Table.
I suppose the question I want to raise in this episode and the next is something like this: “If Christ is risen, why do I feel so dead?”
Perhaps you have not framed it quite that way, but if you are like most pastors I know, you’ve felt it.
You love what you do, you find life giving moments, but when, you wonder, might you come up for some air.
As always, thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table.
Thanks for listening. You can help support this podcast by dropping a few coins in our tip jar. Thanks!
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
Michael J. Stephen, Breath Taking: The Power, Fragility, and Future of Our Extraordinary Lungs (United States: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2021), p. 65.
Marva Dawn, Keeping the Sabbath Wholly:Ceasing, Resting, Embracing, Feasting (United States: Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1989).
Podcast music provided by Over the Rhine, and used with permission.
Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
You can email us at GreatheartsTable@gmail.com.
Welcome to Greatheart’s Table, a podcast for pastors and those who love them.
As you know I have a particular affinity for the smaller church, not because a small church is necessarily better, but because it and its pastors are often unnecessarily maligned.
That said, we should all take to heart the inherent dangers of the small church. And so I’ve titled this post, “Six Things I Hate about You.”
I know it is supposed to be “Ten Things”, but this podcast runs on a strict budget and we could only afford six.
Thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table.
I’m grateful for all who pull up a chair around Greatheart’s Table.
Thanks for listening. You can help support this podcast by dropping a few coins in our tip jar. Thanks!
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
Podcast music provided by Over the Rhine, and used with permission.
Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
You can email us at GreatheartsTable@gmail.com.
Some of you may be new listeners wondering why the name “Greatheart’s Table.” Our namesake is Mr. Greatheart, a guide for pilgrims in part two of Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. He is Bunyan’s image of a pastor. Greatheart’s Table is thus to be a place for like-minded pastors to gather for conversation and encouragement.
It’s best for this to have a real table and real pastors. But perhaps this virtual table can be an encouragement as well.
Now, imagine gathering as pastors around a table and being joined by Paul and Timothy. How would we receive them? No doubt we’d be somewhat speechless. But my intuition tells me that as we would speak, we’d find that their desires and struggles would we be at heart similar to our own.
In this post, I’d like to play out that fantasy a bit.
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EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
Christina Rosetti, “None Other Lamb.” Full lyrics can be found here.
Podcast music provided by Over the Rhine, and used with permission.
Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
You can email us at GreatheartsTable@gmail.com.
I have had several conversations over the past couple of days regarding pastoral loneliness, the isolation of a pastor’s heart, and the matters that pastors find it hard to confess. Pastors are isolated, and are pressured to be perfect. We are to have no cracks, no weakness, no vulnerability, and we buy this narrative.
But, of course, we can’t be perfect, and we need the gospel.
Even though we may preach the gospel week after week, who will so preach it to us? Is that our job as well? To preach the gospel to ourselves?
Thanks for joining us as we ponder that question.
I’m grateful for all who pull up a chair around Greatheart’s Table.
Thanks for listening. You can help support this podcast by dropping a few coins in our tip jar. Thanks!
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
Kelly Kapic, Embodied Hope: A Theological Meditation on Pain and Suffering (United States: IVP Academic, 2017).
The entire book is valuable. The portion on preaching the gospel to oneself, which begins at page 138, is set in the broader context of confession of sin to one another.
The chapel message is found here. Again, the whole is worth hearing, but the relevant portion begins at about minute 20:10.
Thomas Cary Johnson, The Life and Letters of Robert Lewis Dabney (United States: Banner of Truth, 1977), p. 480.
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Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
You can email us at GreatheartsTable@gmail.com.
Greatheart’s Table has been in the world for a year now! You who’ve read the newsletter or listened to the podcast have been my companions as I’ve explored various ways of thinking about ministry and the church. I originally committed to doing this for only one year. And yet I feel the urge to continue for a little while longer.
The time is right, I think, for what I like to think of as ‘organic’ and ‘locally sourced’ pastoral ministry. Consider this the “Whole Foods” of ministry podcasts.
Thanks to all of you for listening, and especially to those of you who have gone to the effort to contribute to this work. You’ve all been a great encouragement and wonderful companions.
I’m grateful for all who pull up a chair around Greatheart’s Table.
Thanks for listening. You can help support this podcast by dropping a few coins in our tip jar. Thanks!
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill Podcast can be found here:
I’m grateful to Covenant Presbyterian Church member Dru Fridsma for the word “polycultural.” It refers to planting multiple crops in the same field. As she explained to me, “This type of land use (or regenerative farming) replenishes the soil, and yields healthier, more disease-resistant, and more nutrient-dense crops. That is a perfect illustration of what a healthy church should be!”
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Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
You can email us at GreatheartsTable@gmail.com.
I’m glad you’ve decided to join us here at Greatheart’s Table. Obviously, I speak that as a metaphor. There is no table and we are not gathered around it. But the metaphor is to encourage what it represents. Pastors need time to actually sit with others, with friends, to talk about life and ministry. We need relationships that encourage conversation and honesty.
Pastoral ministry is a vulnerable place, and when it is also a lonely place, danger lurks. In this post I want us to consider an aspect of that danger and the role that relationships play in averting it.
Thanks for listening.
Thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table.
Thanks for listening. You can help support this podcast by dropping a few coins in our tip jar. Thanks!
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
The selection from the Westminster Larger Catechism is from Q/A 151.
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Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
You can email us at GreatheartsTable@gmail.com.
At the same time there may be a gnawing uncertainty about that new strategy or technology. It’s that inner discomfort that we too often suppress that I want to address. We are called to be forward looking, but we also are called to be wise.
As always, if you like what you hear here, subscribe, and tell others. I appreciate it.
Thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table.
Thanks for listening. You can help support this podcast by dropping a few coins in our tip jar. Thanks!
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
The Wall Street Journal article can be found here, though I fear it is behind a pay wall. I’m grateful to L. M. Sacasas for referring me to this article. Giving deep thought to technology is the constant theme his newsletter The Convivial Society. I encourage you to subscribe.
E. F. Schumacher, Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered (United States: HarperPerennial, 1973), p. 70.
It is fascinating to me that this non-Christian author links suffering with idolatry.
The hymn quoted is “How Sweet and Awful Is the Place” I quote this with trepidation knowing that 1) many in our day will have no knowledge of it, and 2) those who do will trip over the word awful (meaning full of awe, or awe inspiring), which has been ‘updated’ to ‘awesome’ in most modern renditions.
Podcast music provided by Over the Rhine, and used with permission.
Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
Thanks for joining us at The Table.
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
You can email us at GreatheartsTable@gmail.com.
Welcome to Greatheart’s Table, a podcast for pastors and those who care for them.
My judgment is that most pastors are introverts. We are introverts who can’t be shy, but we are introverts nonetheless. This leads to introspection which can be good for our pastoral honesty and vulnerability. But can also lead to self-condemnation. If we are not careful, we can lose sight altogether of the very gospel we preach.
So it is important to remember who loves us and how persevering that love is.
As always, thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table.
Thanks for listening. You can help support this podcast by dropping a few coins in our tip jar. Thanks!
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
On Spotify, Mulvey’s top song has received 180,000 listens compared to Bruce Springsteen’s 400 million and Ed Sheeran’s three billion.
You can listen to the song here.
Mulvey’s web site is here.
Podcast music provided by Over the Rhine, and used with permission.
Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
Thanks for joining us at The Table.
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
You can email us at GreatheartsTable@gmail.com.
Welcome to you who are new to the podcast! I encourage you to nose around to other episodes. I’m honored that you would join us.
Some of you have reached out to me, given feedback, support, and encouragement, all of which is greatly appreciated. Really.
If you are a regular listener, I hope you would subscribe and if you feel inclined, leave a review. That is all helpful in getting the word out.
One of my motives in producing Greatheart’s Table is to validate and encourage the ministry of the small church pastor. And yet in so doing, I’m not naïve. The small church can have a corrosive impact on the pastor’s heart. We need to talk aout that.
Thanks for joining us.
Thanks for listening. You can help support this podcast by dropping a few coins in our tip jar. Thanks!
Podcast music provided by Over the Rhine, and used with permission.
Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
Thanks for joining us at The Table.
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
You can email us at GreatheartsTable@gmail.com.
Each episode of Greatheart’s Table begins as an 800 word newsletter post. This post and the accompanying podcast get released at the same time so that those who prefer their content in print and those who prefer it in audio can both be served. Those of you who are listening can help me have a better sense of my audience if you might also subscribe to the print newsletter. You can do so here. Thanks.
In this episode, I want us to consider a question that seems wrong even in the asking of it. I want us to consider whether we have given the Great Commission more prominence than it deserves, and in so doing neglected other important things.
Again, thanks for listening.
Thanks for listening. You can help support this podcast by dropping a few coins in our tip jar. Thanks!
Podcast music provided by Over the Rhine, and used with permission.
Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
Thanks for joining us at The Table.
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
You can email us at GreatheartsTable@gmail.com.
As you know, we begin each episode of Greatheart’s Table with Over the Rhine’s song “All My Favorite People Are Broken” (with the band’s kind permission, by the way). It’s not just a good song (you should listen to the whole thing – the link is below) but it expresses the heart behind this podcast – that pastors are not immune from brokenness.
In fact, pastors are some of the most broken people I know. Studies repeatedly bear this out.
But we are not supposed to be. We think we are supposed to be strong, not weak, and so we hide our weaknesses. To be seen as weak is to have an asterisk of suspicion and shame attached to our name. And we die.
For the sake of your mental health, your family, and your ministry, in this episode I encourage pastors to consider the value of therapy, no matter the risks.
Thanks for listening. You can help support this podcast by dropping a few coins in our tip jar. Thanks!
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression (United States: Scribner, 2001, 2015 update), p. 363, 419
2 Corinthians 12:9. 10: But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Podcast music provided by Over the Rhine, and used with permission.
Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
Thanks for joining us at The Table.
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
You can email us at GreatheartsTable@gmail.com.
If you’ve listened to the previous two episodes, you know that I have issues with the expectations that American corporate leadership culture has placed upon pastors. Some fit easily within the roles defined for them, they become growth visionaries and ministry strategists. As my dad, a carpenter used to say, “they fit like they growed there.”
But many of us don’t fit. Not in the way we are supposed to. And that is okay. I want to free us from those expectations. But once freed, what then?
In this episode I invite pastors to dream. Freed from the cultural expectations what might your vision, your real, deep, heartfelt vision for ministry be? That will be what will make your heart flourish in ministry.
Thanks for listening. You can help support this podcast by dropping a few coins in our tip jar. Thanks!
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
Harrison Scott Key, Congratulations, Who Are You Again?: A Memoir, (United States: Harper Perenial, 2018), p. 87.
Podcast music provided by Over the Rhine, and used with permission.
Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
Thanks for joining us at The Table.
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
You can email us at GreatheartsTable@gmail.com.
I know that though I write with pastors in mind, not all of you are pastors. I’m actually glad for that, and particularly as we address the idea of just what the pastor is to be.
Christian culture, we noted last time, says that we are to be visionaries who lead our churches to growth. While there is some way in which we are visionaries, the way it is framed tends to cause us to become more managers and strategists than shepherds.
I want to free pastors to be more the pastor than, as we consider in this episode, “The Planner.” For that to occur, the expectations of both pastor and congregation need to change.
Thanks for listening. You can help support this podcast by dropping a few coins in our tip jar. Thanks!
Podcast music provided by Over the Rhine, and used with permission.
Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
Thanks for joining us at The Table.
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
You can email us at GreatheartsTable@gmail.com.
Mike Cosper’s Christianity Today podcast, “The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill” has been both fascinating and troubling.
One of the themes of the podcast is the corrosive impact of the American love affair with growth. Size validates everything and covers a multitude of sins. And no matter how easy it is to mock Mars Hill Church, that conviction never goes away.
This idea that Pastors are supposed to grow churches will occupy us for a few weeks.
I should add that Cosper closes out his final episode with Over the Rhine’s “All My Favorite People Are Broken,” the song with which we open every episode of Greatheart’s Table.
What can I say? It’s a great song. I’m glad others think so as well.
Welcome to the table as we consider the pastor as “The Visionary.”
Thanks for listening. You can help support this podcast by dropping a few coins in our tip jar. Thanks!
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
James Emory White, “The Two Kinds of Church Leaders: The Rancher-Shepherd Divide”
Podcast music provided by Over the Rhine, and used with permission.
Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
Thanks for joining us at The Table.
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
You can email us at GreatheartsTable@gmail.com.
Thanks for checking in here at Greatheart’s Table. One of the things that I love about the metaphor of a ‘table’ is the way it suggests conversation. Obviously, direct and immediate conversation cannot happen, but I’m very interested in your responses, your questions, your pushback even, to what I say. My email address is in the show notes below, and I’d love to hear from you.
This week’s episode is in response to a question generated by my previous thoughts regarding Christians as groupies. The question was a good one which has let me to consider the difference that exists between “Groupies and Mentees.” I’d love to hear what you think.
Thanks for listening. You can help support this podcast by dropping a few coins in our tip jar. Thanks!
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
The print version of the referenced episode is here.
The audio version is here or wherever you find your podcasts.
“Mentee” is indeed a word meaning, not surprisingly, “a person who is advised, trained, or counseled by a mentor.”
I once was in the same room with John Stott, but so were twenty thousand others at the Urbana Missionary Convention in 1978. I don’t think he noticed me.
Those who attract groupies thrive on gaining and keeping followers. Mentors, distant ones included, actually thrive on losing them. In the wonderful streaming television series Ted Lasso, the generous and insightful Leslie Higgins observes that “A good mentor hopes you move on. A great mentor knows you will.”
Podcast music provided by Over the Rhine, and used with permission.
Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
Thanks for joining us at The Table.
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
You can email us at GreatheartsTable@gmail.com.
One of the goals we have here is to take pressure off pastors to perform. We want pastors to feel free to love their people and use the gifts they have for God and his kingdom without the unrealistic expectations that have encrusted ministry and made it impossible for most of us.
As such we don’t want to add responsibility to an already over-crowded set of expectations. But what if there were something we could add that in the long run would make the whole more doable? That would be something worth doing, and so this episode is titled, “Run, Pastor, Run.”
Thanks for listening. You can help support this podcast by dropping a few coins in our tip jar. Thanks!
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
Letters of Samuel Rutherford (United States: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1984), p. ii.
The Podcast with Adam Alter is here.
Psychologist Alter is Professor of Marketing at New York University’s Stern School of Business and the author of the book Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked.
William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act II, Scene 2.
Podcast music provided by Over the Rhine, and used with permission.
Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
Thanks for joining us at The Table.
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
You can email us at GreatheartsTable@gmail.com.
I have spent the past several episodes talking about staying and leaving ministry and I wasn’t going to say anymore. But given my own experience of futility, joined with the publication of a couple of intriguing essays in The Atlantic, I wanted to make sure that I had taken seriously the current pressure on ministry. My heart here is to express that contrary to reason, and to the Borg, “Futility Is Resistible.”
Thanks for listening. You can help support this podcast by dropping a few coins in our tip jar. Thanks!
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
Andrew Solomon, The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression (United States: Scribner, 2015), page 244.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/10/church-pandemic/620496/
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/10/evangelical-trump-christians-politics/620469/
References to Elijah come from 1 Kings 19.
Though “the Borg” is a Star Trek reference, it has an older provenance. The phrase shows up with reference to the Roman Empire in the movie Ben-Hur. Messala says to Ben-Hur, “Persuade your people that their resistance to Rome is stupid. It is worse than stupid, futile!”
I believe that Edith Schaeffer develops this image in her book Affliction: A Compassionate Look at the Reality of Pain and Suffering (United States: Baker Books, 2012).
Podcast music provided by Over the Rhine, and used with permission.
Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
Thanks for joining us at The Table.
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
You can email us at GreatheartsTable@gmail.com.
Hi! Thanks for once again pulling up a chair to Greatheart’s Table. I can’t see you, but knowing you are out there is a wonderful encouragement.
I’ve been addressing questions touching upon longevity in pastoral ministry. If you’d care to comment and add your voice to the conversation, I’d love to hear from you. You can do so using the email address in the show notes.
In this post, the final of three playing off language lifted from Jackson Browne’s album “Running on Empty” we consider a question not often addressed for pastors. When is it time to “Pack It Up and Tear It Down?”
Thanks for listening. You can help support this podcast by dropping a few coins in our tip jar. Thanks!
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
Mary Gauthier, Saved By a Song: The Art and Healing Power of Songwriting (United States: St. Martin’s Publishing Group, 2021), p. 24.
Michael E. Osborne, Surviving Ministry: How to Weather the Storms of Church Leadership (United States: Wipf and Stock, 2016).
“. . . to live is Christ …” – Philippians 1:21
“When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him, but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.” (Acts 9:23-25)
Song lyrics as well as the titles of these posts are taken from Jackson Browne’s songs “The Load Out” and “Stay.”
Podcast music provided by Over the Rhine, and used with permission.
Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
Thanks for joining us at The Table.
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
You can email us at GreatheartsTable@gmail.com.
Hi! Thanks for joining us around Greatheart’s Table.
We’re currently considering the question of pastoral longevity, which may sound rather dull to most, but it is a question never far from the minds of most pastors I know.
If you find this helpful, please review us and encourage others to listen in. You have no idea how meaningful and important that is.
In this middle post of the three, we explore the question of why it is, when pastoring can be so messy, that we stay. Continuing to riff off Jackson Browne, I’ve titled this one, “Just a Little Bit Longer.”
Thanks for listening. You can help support this podcast by dropping a few coins in our tip jar. Thanks!
EPISODE NOTES
Notes and resources relevant to this episode:
Initial quote is from Eugene Peterson, The Pastor (United States: HarperCollins Publishers, 2011), p. 314, 315.
My reflections here are idiosyncratic and anecdotal. More deeply studied and quantified insight on pastoral sustainability can be found in the superb books Resilient Ministry: What Pastors Told Us About Surviving and Thriving by Bob Burns, et. al. and Michael E. Osborne’s Surviving Ministry: How to Weather the Storms of Church Leadership.
Lyrics quoted are from the songs “Stay” and “The Load-Out” from Jackson Browne’s album “Running on Empty,” the title of which, ironically, is resonant of pastoral experience.
Podcast music provided by Over the Rhine, and used with permission.
Intro: “All My Favorite People” / Lyrics
Outro: “Called Home” / Lyrics
Thanks for joining us at The Table.
To find our more about Greatheart’s Table, visit us here.
You can email us at GreatheartsTable@gmail.com.
Welcome back to Greatheart’s Table. As this is published three times each month, on the first, second, and fourth Mondays, there are occasional gaps that allow us to catch our breath. I appreciate your patience. With this post, I begin what is a three part series on pastoral longevity. Whether you are a pastor or […]
Though this episode is tilted toward those of us who preach, it nevertheless touches upon resources in which we all can delight. Gather around the table and consider what I call “Uncommon Sources of Sermonic Wisdom.” Thanks for listening. You can help support this podcast by dropping a few coins in our tip jar. Thanks! […]
The other day a friend and I were discussing what it was about pastoral ministry that makes it so stressful. He mentioned the fact, which we have addressed in the two previous posts, that everyone expected him to have an opinion on every issue that is being blogged about or debated on cable news. But […]
Last time, we raised the question of Psalm 11 (which I embarrassingly mis-referenced) that “if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3). Particularly, what can or should the local church do or be in the face of the difficulties of the current world. What needs doing, it seems to me, is […]
Here at Greatheart’s Table, we are especially grateful for those of you who are NOT pastors. I write for pastors and those who love them, as the tag line says. But many of you are not pastors. You are those who love Christ and his church and are enjoying finding kindred spirits with whom to […]
Welcome to Greatheart’s Table, a place meant to encourage the ordinary pastor in the long grind of pastoral ministry. And encouragement is what we often need. Most of us here will never have a broad platform or a particularly large church. And most of us quite often question our calling and wonder about our relevance. […]
Thanks for joining us at Greatheart’s Table. If you like what we are doing here, please tell others to join us. And if you are able to drop some coins in the tip jar to help offset my expenses, that would be kindly received, but it is not expected. We are just glad to have […]
Welcome to the fourteenth post in Greatheart’s Table. I’m glad you’re along for the ride. Feel free to forward these posts to others if you find them helpful. In this post I continue our conversation about busy-ness suggesting some pathways to lessen the stress. Where we end is always where we need to end: putting […]
If there is anything that pastors can agree on, it’s that we are busy. We complain about it like we complain about the weather. Being busy is a badge many wear with honor. Busy-ness, we may think, is somewhere next to godliness. That’s an assumption that in this episode of Greatheart’s Table I’d like to […]
Recently I sat around a table with other pastors sharing stories about funerals and weddings that did not quite go as planned. It was wonderfully therapeutic. These other pastors are gifted people with vibrant ministries whose labors sometimes went awry. We laughed, as we pastors must do, and it was good. So, with a nod […]
Hi. Welcome to mid-July at Greatheart’s Table. As you know I’ve promised to keep our time together short each week. Each newsletter post of 800 words translates into about 6-8 minutes on audio. I don’t want to consume too much of your time. Nevertheless, should you like to carry on the conversation, do so by […]
Thanks for the encouraging words many of you have sent my way. I write with pastors in view – so if you know any who might benefit from joining us here, do let them know. But I am discovering that many of you who have found the content thus far helpful are not pastors. I […]
Thanks for listening to Greatheart’s Table. For reasons this post will explain I don’t know how many of you there are out there, but I’m grateful for all of you, or perhaps both of you, as the case may be. In this post, I’m thinking about our motivation for ministry. It’s possible we pay more […]
Hi! Welcome to Greatheart’s Table. A friend recently stopped by a donut shop in Michigan whose slogan is “Donuts: We made them taste good; you made them famous. I want to adopt that idea. I do what I can to make these posts taste good. If you agree, then I need you to make them […]
Hi! Welcome to Greatheart’s Table. If you have not joined us before, I encourage you to read or listen to the first post which explains what Greatheart’s Table is all about. I hope this to be an encouragement to pastors, and to those who care for them, and to any others who might take a […]
Welcome to Greatheart’s Table. There is a lot of conversation about pastors being in crisis. It certainly can feel like a crisis moment, and I understand the panic some feel. But perhaps that is a bit premature. Perhaps we need some perspective. I’d love to hear your thoughts. You can email me — greatheartstable@gmail.com — […]
Thanks for joining us at Greatheart’s Table. Since my plan is to publish on the first, second, and fourth Monday of the month, there will (probably!) be no installment released on May 17. I say “probably” because I’ve enjoyed doing this and could see myself just plowing on through. Nevertheless, you can for sure expect […]
Thanks for joining us at Greatheart’s Table. I wanted to give a shout out to Nicole Turner who designed the logo for Greatheart’s Table. I am finding that in some nooks and crannies of the internet my placeholder logo frustratingly still appears. When that happens, it only goes to show how good Nicole is, and […]
Thanks for joining us here at Greatheart’s Table. If you have comments or questions, I’d love to hear from you. When you leave a comment or send an email, you will help shape the direction this takes. In this edition, we note that it is not only running a church that can make pastoring hard […]
The inadequacy some pastors feel may arise from a disconnect between what they feel called to do and what they are expected to do. We want to care for people; the people expect us to run a church. Somehow we have to find a way to do both. So pull up a chair and let’s […]
This episode welcomes you to the podcast giving listeners an idea of what we are about here. As with all episodes, it replicates the content of the print newsletter. To check that out or subscribe, you can go here. Podcast music provided by Over the Rhine, and used with permission.Intro: “All My Favorite People” / […]