Good Guys Wear Black | Discerning Your Vocation In The Orthodox Church
For Orthodox Christian Men Discerning A Vocation
I love my sons who are now all adults, and in at least one parish I paid a price for putting them first. That being said, I never missed a single meeting for Church business. Remember, sometimes everything isn't enough for some people. As an Orthodox priest, you will have to be there for your own kids. If you're not, who will be? I was a husband and father before I was a priest, and that is a part of who I am and what makes me effective Read more…
by Thom S. Rainer It can be done. You can go from pastorally fried to evangelistically fired up. There are few vocations that can engender burnout like the pastorate. The demands on a pastor’s time, emotions, and energy can be overwhelming. When I was a pastor, I often felt at least the symptoms of burnout. I recently spoke with 17 pastors who had experienced burnout, or who felt they came precariously close to burnout. The good Read more…
by Bishop Benjamin (Milov) of Saratov and Balashov Is there such a thing as an attachment to a pastor? Is it admissible, does it not get in our way on the path to salvation? An event from the life of St John Chrysostom provides an answer to these questions. As is well-known, the saintly bishop used to suffer greatly from his ailments and once, in his weakness, he entrusted two bishops to give the sermon. But the people were so annoyed Read more…
Here are several things you might find yourself doing that will unintentionally shrink or even kill your group: Prepare your Bible study late in the week. You’re a busy guy, and you’ve learned to put your lesson together on Saturday. You did it once in an emergency, but hey, no one in the group complained about your “Saturday night special,” so you’ve learned to procrastinate and “study” for an hour or two on Read more…
by Michael Hyatt Some of my favorite memories of growing up are building model airplanes with my dad. I remember him showing me how to assemble, sand, and paint them. I think back on how proud I always was when we finished a project together. On one occasion, I remember struggling to get two parts to fit together. I tried several different angles. Nothing seemed to work. I grew increasingly frustrated. Calmly, my dad said, “Son, Read more…
A unique glimpse at what faith leaders keep silent about. by the Rev. Gary Brinn Eleven in the evening is well past my bedtime, which is to confess that I don't have a particularly glamorous social life. A single man in late middle-age on a tight budget, I try to limit my trips to Monte Carlo to once-a-month or so. All of which means I am not at my best when the late Christmas Eve service rolls around. I'd just as soon be tucked Read more…
by Fr. Gregory Jensen In my last post (here), I talked about the search for a meaningful life. The argument I made is that together with marriage and family life, work is the natural context for meaning. Unfortunately many clergy frequently undervalue or dismiss work as valuable for the spiritual life and so many laypeople experience a schism between what they do Monday through Friday at work and what happens in the family or on Sunday Read more…
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