Presby-Musings

This past week I got to do something that I have wanted to do for years--I visited the island of Patmos, and the traditional site where the book of Revelation was born.  In the first chapter of Revelation we find these words from John the Revelator:   I, John, with you all the way in the trial and the Kingdom and the passion of patience in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of God’s Word, the witness of Jesus. It was Sunday and I was in the Spirit, praying. I heard a loud voice behind me, trumpet-clear and piercing: “Write what you see into a book.  Tradition teaches that it was John the Evangelist, the youngest of the disciples of Jesus, who received the Revelation while he was in exile on Patmos.  These traditions teach that he would climb the highest hill on the island to pray inside a cave.  It was in that cave that he saw the vision that would become the Apocalypse  or the book of Revelation.   We visited The Cave of the A...

Leaving Church:  A Memoir of Faith by Barbara Brown Taylor Four years ago, Barbara Brown Taylor wrote Leaving Church .  A friend of mine told me, "Dude, you need to read this book."  I didn't.  I had a stack of books on my bookshelf that I was working my way through and didn't feel like I could add one more to it. I wish I had.  Leaving Church is the story of Taylor's journey through the pastorate--a journey that eventually led to her to hang up her clerical collar and robes for academic ones.  She now teaches Religion at Piedmont College in Georgia and is an adjunct professor at Columbia Theological Seminary.  I am convinced that every pastor needs to read this book.  If you are a pastor, you will find yourself in it somewhere.  Taylor began her ministry as a pastor in a large urban church in Atlanta.  The pace of the ministry was killing her, she knew that much, but did not know what to do about it.  When she was give...