Sublime

for Augustine the journey inward was an open battle with devils and demons. Augustine’s pastoral practice gave us an inner self, but this self, to use Taylor’s language, was porous.

We find sufficiency and sustainable prosperity when we think of our resources as a flow that is meant to be shared, when we put our full attention on making a difference with what we have, and when we partner with others in ways

Take your wallet, checkbook or other tangible evidences of financial supply in your hands and declare concerning them: You are even now filled with the rich bounty of God who supplies my every need now. Then is the time to fearlessly and boldly use the substance they contain as far as it will go in the present situation. If there are bills to be pa

Because this has occurred, the pastor has been left with only the hope of building a vital institution and therefore winning the right to speak into people’s private lives (helping them live their best life now). It is no wonder that the entrepreneur becomes the core metaphor for the pastor. In our time, the pastor has to spend time and energy winn

But this prodding would no longer come from a set-apart holy man, consecrated by enchanted oil or a Yale degree. Rather, Henry’s prodding was done as “one of us.” Henry threw off any sense that he was a class above or beyond, as so many clergy embodied.

Like the branches of an unpruned tree, our attachment to possessions and wealth often chokes our lives, enslaves our souls, and hinders both human community and union with God. Francis prescribed simplicity as an antidote to our often unquenchable yearning for more and ever more.

He remembered that the highest goal for him translated into one word: Teacher. He got energy and felt a connection with something higher when he was teaching in the broadest sense. He knew that he could serve others if he drew on this strength. He knew that if he stayed in a giving, generative, collaborative role, he could navigate the worst situat