It’s Friday, October 1. This is Friday Good Stuff: Things that inspired, motivated, challenged, taught or amused me on Substack this week + what’s new at Free Range Priest.

This week’s theme: Discernment

‘As I sit on the edge of my seat, waiting to see what God will do for me, will I be faithful? Will I stay with him in the waiting? Most of all, will I keep returning when I wander away?’

‘Here we sit over 450 years from Luther’s 95-theses posted on a Church door. We do not have two Churches, Catholic and Reformed. We have over three hundred and that is just in North America. The number worldwide is 45,000. This has resulted in a denominational and non-denominational tower of Babel!’

‘Now, I want to belong somewhere. I want to find a home. I want to get involved, use my gifts, find and nurture relationships. Yet I am still curious about other traditions. I still want to explore where the Spirit of God is active, and deepen my appreciation of how the grace of God communicates.’

‘I’d never heard of the spiritual gift of battle before. (nor since) Eric was so delighted by it and wore the result like a badge of honor, often reminding me of it with a sly grin and glimmer in his eye. “I have the spiritual gift of battle! Remember?’

‘We can argue about the merits of kind lit-fic and whether it offers enough meat on the bone. But the reason the room erupted that night and a book club meeting almost ended in fisticuffs is because Patchett succeeded in her literary goal..’

This week at Free Range Priest:


☕️ ‘Cage Free Ministry’ Bite-sized ministry.

☕️ ‘What Might God Do Through You?’ Guest post from , reflecting on the Q3 theme of Theology and Community.

Substack Seminary Q4 starts Monday (through November 19!)

The theme is Technology and Collaboration - and we are the case study!

Pastor Sierra Ward, Loren Richmond Jr., Fr. Cathie Caimano … and you !- answer these questions in public, via blog and livestream (Thursdays at 3:30pm Eastern)

Week 1 - starts Oct 5: The tech your ministry is built on

Inventory what you’re using and how (your digital ‘stack’!). Favorite platform? One that gives you fits? One you wish you were using/could use? AI (yes/no/how)

Your weekly Trexo ‘Hearts up!’ moment: faith comes through practice….

What have I missed?

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.

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It’s Friday, September 25. This is Friday Good Stuff: Things that inspired, motivated, challenged, taught or amused me on Substack this week + what’s new at Free Range Priest.

This week’s theme: It’s the little things

‘I have a simple working theory about these little tasks that pop up everyday. Here it is: when we accept them for what they are, we receive a natural means of grace for the day’.

‘It is beautiful to consider the person who actually prepared that meal for the Last Supper. Did they know they were preparing what may be the most famous, talked-about meal in all of human history?’

‘I realized that Bell’s progressive Christianity led people to an abstract alternate universe where the morality of the inner person was the true God. I was too messed up for that. I needed a Cross. I needed a high priest who could sympathize with me, not a God who offered comfort in the aisles of Trader Joe’s.’

‘This niggling feeling you have is a warning for all of us. Be careful what you believe, because so goes your life. I do think we understand this, but it’s hard to look at too closely.’

‘there’s very little indication that “believing the right things” topped anyone’s list of importance. The goal was more so retraining - reprogramming our base, animal instincts closer to the image of Christ.’

This week at Free Range Priest:

Small, repeated patterns for turning our life - and ministry - back towards God:


☕️ ‘It’s still ministry, it just tastes better.’ Cage Free Ministry = concepts for ‘bite-sized’ changes based on a new way of thinking about ministry and building a more agile system from the inside of church.

☕️ ‘What if you could train your soul?’ (at the Trexo gym for your soul)

Train for what?

• For that moment when everything falls apart … and we know we’re surrounded and held by love.

• For the moment everything comes together … and we know that our happiness rests in something even larger.

• For a life bound in peace, love, meaning, and JOY.

Your weekly Trexo ‘Hearts up!’ moment….

What have I missed?

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.

Subscribe now

It’s Friday, September 18. This is Friday Good Stuff: Things that inspired, motivated, challenged, taught or amused me on Substack this week + what’s new at Free Range Priest.

This week’s theme: Transformation

This subject is far and away the most cited reason that visitors to our church mention as to why they are looking into Orthodoxy; after reading the Bible, they begin to realize that the Lord’s Supper is central to New Testament worship.

Pragmatism could be a great enlivening force for our age. It lets us again feel the awareness and the intelligence of everything, while also not losing our modernist reason and logical approach. It’s a wonderful prospect, as far as I’m concerned.’

So perhaps the question is not simply whether you have always called yourself a Christian. The better question is whether your life has ever been gathered up into Christ. Do you belong to Him? Has grace opened your mouth? Are you willing to stay near Him when doing so costs you something?

The believers in Antioch did not invent a label for themselves. Their neighbors watched their lives and found one.’

I wonder if I’ve come to a similar hinge moment in my life. I’m 55 years old; my oldest is about to graduate from college this spring and my youngest will become a teenager in just a few weeks.

Are there other things I need to be doing? Are there parts of my life I’ve given enough energy to, and are there new directions I should aim for?

Trigger points develop in your soul too. In fact, a trigger point in your body will indicate one in your soul too.

The technique to release a trigger point in the body is the same as to release one in the soul, albeit with far less violence:

Confront it.

Soothe it.

Accept it.

Again and again.

Love transforms even the hardest things…

☕️ On the Last Night of the World by .

This week at Free Range Priest:

Reimagining ministry as the institutional church transforms into the future…


☕️ ’s blog for Substack Seminary - ‘What do we lose when we lose the church building?’ - explores the gap between what we want church to be and what it often is: institutional maintenance.

☕️ The Trexo Story. Why I’m creating a gym for your soul.


☕️ Six-word mission statements are fun and informative ways to get at the heart of what your ministry is and why it matters. It’s also not so easy to do! It’s one of the fundamentals of Cage Free Ministry. I’d love to know yours! If you’re a subscriber (free or paid!), share yours with me here and I’ll send you some feedback:

Your 6-word mission

What have I missed?

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.

Subscribe now

It’s Friday, September 11. This is Friday Good Stuff: Things that inspired, motivated, challenged, taught or amused me on Substack this week + what’s new at Free Range Priest.

This week’s theme: Love never ends

This week at Free Range Priest:

Real talk about how it’s so hard to change as an institution.

☕️ ‘Congregations, it’s time to spend your money’. Taking a financial risk on a bold new church venture changes the odds from a 100% chance of dying to a non-zero chance of thriving. That doesn’t make it easier for lots of churches.

☕️ ’s blog for Substack Seminary - ‘What is your organization actually designed to produce?’ - explores the gap between what we want church to be and what it often is: institutional maintenance.

☕️ At the Trexo gym, we’re focusing on the Jesus Prayer - and how small, repetitive practices help shape our souls - and bring us closer to God.


☕️ Six-word mission statements are fun and informative ways to get at the heart of what your ministry is and why it matters. It’s also not so easy to do! It’s one of the fundamentals of Cage Free Ministry. I’d love to know yours! If you’re a subscriber (free or paid!), share yours with me here and I’ll send you some feedback:

Your 6-word mission

What have I missed?

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.

Subscribe now

It’s Friday, September 4. This is Friday Good Stuff: Things that inspired, motivated, challenged, taught or amused me on Substack this week + what’s new at Free Range Priest.

It’s a wonderful work of the Holy Spirit - often I’m drawn to several pieces of writing which all have the same theme…

This week’s theme: Formation

This week at Free Range Priest:

Since I combined all my Substack publications into one, I realize it can be hard to keep up with things! But there’s lots of church reimagination Good Stuff at FRP, so each week I’ll point out a few things:

☕️ At Trexo, we’re focusing on the first and most fundamental Practice: ‘Hearts up!’ It’s one of the earliest forms of Christian worship: ‘Lift up your hearts’/’we lift them to the Lord’. It’s our orientation towards God, and it’s something we can do every day. Our ‘Hearts up!’ Coaches are Benedict of Nursia, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, and Amma Theodora.

☕️ This week’s theme at Substack Seminary is ‘Practice’. Read ’s ‘We become what we practice’ to hear how our repeated actions shape who we become.


☕️ Six-word mission statements are fun and informative ways to get at the heart of what your ministry is and why it matters. It’s also not so easy to do! It’s one of the fundamentals of Cage Free Ministry. I’d love to know yours! If you’re a subscriber (free or paid!), share yours with me here and I’ll send you some feedback:

Your 6-word mission

What have I missed?

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.

Subscribe now

‘Good Stuff’ = articles I’ve read this week that inspired, educated, entertained, or moved me.

Which for a Free Range Priest, means reading more amazing, inspiring things about God, the church, the universe, and running.

Here’s this week’s roundup:

God stuff

• ‘Redemptive Suffering is a myth’ by . ‘It’s not that suffering satisfies God. Suffering is where God shows up. What if the cross doesn’t change God’s mind about us — what if it changes our mind about God?

  ---

• ’How to Pray When You’re Drowning’ by . ‘That’s the bare-bones prayer. It’s what we’ve got when words dissolve in our mouth. When we can’t see more than a few inches in front of us, and what we see looks black.

  This is combat prayer. It may sound like ‘oh God, oh God, oh God.” It may be complete silence, and maintaining an open channel.’

Church stuff

• ‘25 Essential Anglican Writers’ by . ‘A tradition isn’t merely a collection of things our predecessors happened to believe. It’s an inheritance of arguments, prayers, habits, failures, insights and discoveries, handed from one generation to another for the rather dangerous purpose of allowing the next generation to make use of it. The point of inheriting a tradition isn’t to preserve it in amber. It’s to have something substantial enough to argue with and learn from.’

  ---

• ‘Allowing a Church to Die’ by . ‘Allowing a church to die, then, is not indifference. It is not the absence of hope or care. Sometimes it is the difficult work of discerning together when faithfulness means continuing to fight for renewed life and when faithfulness means releasing what we love into the hands of God.’

Other stuff

• ’I’d like to be less responsible’ by . ‘Years ago, when I was overwhelmed with grief and indecision, my therapist told me if I was having trouble figuring out what I wanted the best thing to do was to practice it. Go to the store and buy a peach if you really want to buy a peach. Linger a little bit on the question of what you want to wear. Practice following your impulses. It was good advice though I fall in and out of the habit. I think it’s time to give it another try.’
  

  ---

• ‘We should all aspire to be a Dolly’ by . ‘Yet what her death made me think about wasn’t just Parton, whom I admired but never met. I began to think about other Earth angels, other “Dollys” that I have been blessed to know.’
  

What I wrote this week:

• ‘I’m Father Cathie*, and I am your Free Range Priest’. ‘It felt like it was the other way around: communities and ministers seemed more preoccupied with propping up the institution than sharing the Gospel - because their survival depended on it. I thought: there has to be a better way. We should be able to figure out a new way to share Good News in the 21st century.’
  

  ---

• ‘What is the end of the journey?’ Written by (for Substack Seminary).

And finally…

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.

Subscribe now

Sign up for the Newletters - and manage your preferences HERE.

‘Good Stuff’ = articles I’ve read this week that inspired, educated, entertained, or moved me.

Which for a Free Range Priest, means reading more amazing, inspiring things about God, the church, the universe, and running.

Here’s this week’s roundup:

God stuff

• ‘The Author of a Better Story’ by . ‘there’s something about this season of my life that feels like I’m watching God take a story I once understood primarily through the lens of death and slowly rewrite it through the lens of life.’

  ---

• ’AI Studies Jesus’ Self-Claims to Discover Who Jesus Thought He Was’ by . ‘Taken together, these statements are not a collection of separate titles or roles. They form a single, coherent self-disclosure: Jesus is claiming to be the eternal God of Israel who has become a human being in order to fulfill the messianic role.’

Church stuff

• ‘Why Your Church Should Use a Lectionary’ by . ‘Scripture, not the pastor, sets the preaching agenda. While this might seem restrictive for pastors, it can actually be quite freeing: it relieves them of the burden of trying to be mind-readers, or worse yet, amateur sociologists, trying to intuit the needs of the congregation and pick passages to meet those needs.’
  

  ---

• ‘Is the Church Running Out of Big Beefy Boys?’ by . ‘And what about sin? Beefy boys are more resistant to sin than skinny men, it is science. Whenever a group of bros is like “let’s go out tonight and do a cat burglary,” the beefy boy is like “nah, I don’t have that kind of agility, I will go home and get a stew going.”’

Other stuff

• ‘Chasing the Ghost of Pikes Peak’ by . ‘Unforgiveness is a tricky disease. You don’t even know you have it until it’s finally gone. You think you’re fine, even though you aren’t. You think all is well. You even swear to people that you’ve let all ill feelings go.’
  

  ---

• ‘Technology Is Over’ by . ‘There is some saturation happening, we must notice. We’re bored by promises of better technology and now looking elsewhere. We’ve gotten pretty much all we can consume. We’re informationally obese and looking to go on a diet.’
  

What I wrote this week:

• ‘‘All are welcome’ is a lie’. ‘It’s not (usually) about walking into a church service ‘cold’. And even if it is - plenty of people somehow stumble into a church when they are in need - it doesn’t end there. It’s accompanied by formation.
  
  By walking with someone (or a group of someones) who are actively praying, practicing, worshiping together, as we grow in our relationship with God. By getting to know this community and its quirks and gifts. By becoming part of the family.’
  

  ---

• ’People want to know how to get in’. Actually written by - for Substack Seminary. ‘the ubiquitous church phrase “all are welcome” can become so vague that it tells people almost nothing. Welcome to what? What does belonging here mean? How would I know whether I actually belong?

  People want to know how they can get in.’
  

And finally…

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.

Subscribe now

Sign up for the Newletters - and manage your preferences HERE.

‘Good Stuff’ = articles I’ve read this week that inspired, educated, entertained, or moved me.

Which for a Free Range Priest, means reading more amazing, inspiring things about God, the church, the universe, and running.

Here’s this week’s roundup:

God stuff

• ‘What They’ll Say At Your Funeral’ by . ‘I’ve tried to live that way. Fought my own crookedness, called it discipline, called it grit. It got me somewhere. But it never got me to beloved. The Gospel offers us a radically different view of character formation.’
  

  ---

• ‘Ask a Priest: Sin, Sex & Our God Given Desires’ by . ‘Sex is dangerous, it’s dangerous inside and outside of marriage. It shapes and bonds and destroys and builds. Be very careful how you wield your power — it can continue to bring you close or separate you from all that is good.’

Church stuff

• ‘I Want To Serve a Dying Church’ by . ‘Only a “dying church,” that is a church that knows its utter dependence upon this God, and not upon its own reputation, past greatness, resources, endowed funds or programs, can truly live.’
  

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• ‘Everyone Hates Evangelicalism. Is It Even Worth Salvaging?’ by and . ‘I suspect evangelicals have been a little too eager to believe caricatures about ourselves. As I’ve begun telling people about this book, I’ve encountered a real eagerness for it in some people—like they’re hungry for permission to be openly happy about their own tradition.’
  

Other stuff

• ‘Exactly what I wish I’d known when I started on Substack’ by . ‘If your Substack homepage is just a scroll of every post you’ve ever published, it’s time for a small upgrade. Create a “Start here” or Table of Contents post to guide readers to your best work.’
  

  ---

• ‘Hearing Your Stories: Abby Heffern’ by and . ‘I may not be the most impressive runner with the most impressive results, but I keep coming back year after year. And because I keep coming back, I keep growing. I keep getting better. I keep finding out what else I’m capable of.’
  

What I wrote this week:

• ‘Can you describe your ministry in 6 words?’ ‘Congregations and other ministries often create ‘mission statements’ that are really descriptions … or they’re super-long but don’t really say anything - when I teach preaching, I call this ‘blah blah blah Jesus’!’

• ‘We don’t think our way into believing.’ ‘These Practices existed before the divisions of Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant. They unite all Christians because they’re foundational to all traditions.’
  

And finally…

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.

Subscribe now

Sign up for the Newletters - and manage your preferences HERE.

‘Good Stuff’ = articles I’ve read this week that inspired, educated, entertained, or moved me.

Which for a Free Range Priest, means reading more amazing, inspiring things about God, the church, the universe, and running.

And … we’re back! Hope you’ve had a great three weeks. I’ve been blissfully off grid for a big chunk of it, but happy to get back to Good Stuff.

Here’s this week’s roundup:

God stuff

[Note: I lost my beloved dog quite suddenly and tragically two weeks ago. Coincidentally (or in at least one case, not), I read some really great articles on whether we’ll see our dogs (and other beloved animals) in heaven]…

• Ask a Priest: Pets & Heaven by
  ‘I think God will make it right in the New Creation, and that God cares even more deeply for all of His creation than we can ever fathom. I have confidence that in the end, things will be made right, and more than right, righter than we even know now!’
  

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• ‘Dogs don’t go to heaven; robust Christian eschatology gives us a better hope’ by .
  ‘The real glory of the restoration of nature, of God’s promise to deliver all things, is bigger than the family pet too, but where could I feel it more strongly than when the Puppy greets me, not in heaven, but in the resurrection of the body, in the kingdom that has no end?’

Church stuff

• ‘A Letter to my Denomination’ by
  ‘I love my denomination, but not with a blind love. I am not a fanatic. A fanatic refuses to see fault. He becomes so enamored with an ideology, a political party, or an institution that he defends everything and questions nothing. Loyalty becomes denial.’
  

  ---

• ‘Fired from Your Calling?’ by
  ’You had a calling before you were working, you have a calling while you’re working, and you will have a calling after. We can’t limit our calling to our assignments. What is your calling? Every Christ-follower is first called to Christ and His mission. Within that, God shapes each of us to contribute in particular ways.’
  

Other stuff

• ‘Five years later’ by
  ’But if I start with those questions, I may very well miss something that God might do beyond what I could have anticipated. God has been faithful in each of our transitions so far. This tells me I can rely on God’s future faithfulness, too.’
  

  ---

• ‘Sun Damage’ by
  ’If those moments now stain my arms with potential
  cancer, and glitter my nose with age,
  Who shall deliver me from this body of death? I want it all
  back to live over again through my children...’
  

What I wrote this week:

Mostly I’ve been updating my new, consolidated Free Range Priest publication!

the new Start Here post is at the top of the page.

I also updated my bio HERE.

And finally…

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.

Subscribe now

Sign up for the Newletters - and manage your preferences HERE.

‘Good Stuff’ = articles I’ve read this week that inspired, educated, entertained, or moved me.

Which for a Free Range Priest, means reading more amazing, inspiring things about God, the church, the universe, and running.

Here’s this week’s roundup:

God stuff

• ‘First Steps’ by . ‘Learning how to show up every day with your Bible and journal doesn’t impress them as having the spiritual sizzle necessary for the life change they say they want. However, whenever we study the lives of great saints, we find out their spiritual practices that led to their deeply spiritual lives were simple and basic.’

• ’Prone to Wander’ by . ‘The older I get, the more I realise following Jesus isn’t about reaching a place where I’m no longer tempted. It’s about learning to recognise His voice sooner. It’s about noticing when my heart is beginning to drift and having the humility to turn around before I wander any further.’

Church stuff

• ‘The Unexpected Benefit of being a 1099 Pastor’ by ‘Clear expectations can actually be healthy. Not because pastors shouldn’t be generous. Not because churches shouldn’t care for people. But because healthy boundaries make long-term ministry more sustainable.’

• ‘Three Things You’re Getting Wrong About Religion Data’ by . ‘After all that, I can only say one of two things: “You’re welcome” or “I’m sorry” for taking you through what the world looks like from my perspective on a day-to-day basis. It’s fun. And frustrating. I’m probably going to be doing this for the rest of my life. Maybe one day I’ll get used to it.’
  

Other stuff

• ‘I thought I would have it all figured out by now’ by . ‘When you’re 8, “Don’t tell me what to do!” means: I want independence. When you’re older, “Someone, please tell me what to do!” doesn’t really mean I want someone to control me. It does mean…. I long for wisdom. I long for trusted voices. I long for companions and guidance, to be seen, witnessed, and understood. To not be alone in this weird, weird journey of living.’

• ‘The Fire & Light of Glen Hansard’ by . ‘I keep listening to his voice because it points me back to myself and back to God, back to the gift of hope, a fire lit in the heart that cannot be put out.’

  
  

What I wrote this week:

• ‘Please say the wrong thing’. ‘’We’re commiserating,’ I told him. Co-misery. ‘You get it, you’re sharing that you’ve been in this place before, that you’re here now. That neither one of us is alone’. Thank you.’

• ‘We can start something new, but we need to stay connected.’ We started Substack Seminary because the ministry we’re doing didn’t seem to fit into any model of training and development for ministry. And because we didn’t see any one else trying to equip today’s ministers for the Future of Church.’

  
  
  
  

And finally…

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Right now. Today.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.

Subscribe now

‘Good Stuff’ = articles I’ve read this week that inspired, educated, entertained, or moved me.

Which for a Free Range Priest, means reading more amazing, inspiring things about God, the church, the universe, and running.

And … we’re back! Hope you’ve had a great three weeks. I’ve been blissfully off grid for a big chunk of it, but happy to get back to Good Stuff.

Here’s this week’s roundup:

God stuff

• ‘Have you Considered Giving it to God?’ by . ‘In truth, I do give it to God, every day, or try to, not because I think God will make everything come out hunky-dory, but because I cannot control most parts of life, and what else is there to do?’

• ’What If We’ve Been Looking for God in All the Wrong Places?’ by . ‘One of the most remarkable things about Scripture is how rarely God waits at the finish line. God doesn’t meet Abram after he becomes Abraham. God doesn’t wait until Jacob has repaired the damage he has done before appearing to him in a dream. God doesn’t wait for Moses to become a faultless leader before calling him. Jesus doesn’t recruit disciples after they’ve proved their wisdom or courage.’

Church stuff

• ‘Church Tourism And The Restless Soul’ by . ‘Whether or not we acknowledge it, our human desire for beauty, for quiet, for participation in the construction of God’s kingdom are constantly tugging at our heartstrings.’

• ‘The Leaders We Learn to See’ by . ‘We don’t decide whom God may call. Our task is much more humble, and much more holy. We recognize what the Holy Spirit has already begun. The more I’ve reflected on that, the more I’ve come to believe this may be one of the Church’s greatest responsibilities.’
  

Other stuff

• ‘Water Wants to Move’ by . ‘We humans have spent much of our history drawing lines around the earth and declaring what falls inside them as ours. This acre belongs to me and that acre belongs to you. This side of the fence is mine; the other side is yours. But water has never been particularly interested in our boundaries. It falls where it falls and then begins looking for somewhere to go.’

• ‘Bougie Water’ by . ‘Moreover, when you came from the other side of the tracks, like me, you did not drink water from plasticized bottles. You drank water the way the Good Lord intended: from recycled jelly jars, or directly from the hosepipe.’
  

What I wrote this week:

• ‘The Trexo story: becoming an everyday monastic.’ ‘I developed Trexo as a ‘gym for your soul’ to try and capture the spirit of monasticism - a structured community for devotion, discipline, and spiritual growth - and the challenge of athletics - becoming stronger and swifter, pushing the limits of what we think we can do.’

• ‘How do we know what is real?’ ‘If we believe in resurrection, we don’t believe suffering and death are permanent states. That changes our view of reality - and gives us HOPE.’
  
  
  

And finally…

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Right now. Today.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.

Subscribe now

I’m off on retreat. Technology-free.

So I thought this would be a good time to look back on my favorite ‘Good Stuff’ articles so far this year, curate them for you, and set them to publish while I’m gone.

So that’s what I’m doing!

These next few Fridays - July 3, 10, and 17, I’m sharing 10 of my favorite articles from past ‘Good Stuff’ Friday blogs.

I can’t tell you how hard it is to narrow them down to just 30 articles (plus one of my own each week). There is SO much good writing about the church, life with God, and how to live a meaningful life. And running. And other random things.

It will be hard to miss a bunch of writing during these weeks, too - I’ll mostly be off-line. But I’ll spend some extra time working on it when I come back.

In the meantime, here’s the last 10 mid-year articles, from May 8 - June 26, 2026. I sure enjoyed reading them again…

Can evangelicals become more sacramental as sacramentalists become more evangelical?

by

‘All of these evangelicals encourage me as they are growing in an awareness of the richness of tradition—that the way we experience God is not in spite of our faith’s history, but in rich participation with it.’

A Too Small Life

by

’For me, this is the most challenging part of loving my neighbor. When I bemoaned to husband how difficult this is, to watch in grief when lives crumble and neglect is rampant, when choices shatter surrounding lives that have no control, he said, wisely, “With deep love, comes deep suffering.”’

Beloved Authenticity

by

‘That’s not self-centered spirituality. That’s deeply Christian spirituality. Sanctity, for Merton, was not about becoming someone else. It was about becoming who you already are in God.’

Do You Believe This? The Crisis of Ecclesiology in Mainline Protestantism

by

‘Now I don’t know the reasons this congregation closed. But as I see more and more mainline Protestant congregations close with what seems to be a shrug, when I see talk about how the church’s assets can be used to help non-profits, I am left wondering: do mainline Protestants even know what the local church is for? Do we care about ecclesiology?’

In Praise of Small Churches

by

‘These churches rarely become conference examples or ministry case studies. Most people outside their communities will never know they exist.

But they are faithful.

That matters more than we sometimes allow ourselves to admit.’

What Am I Counting?

by

‘… being a priest is integral to who I am. It’s in my bones. I marvel at the life that choice and calling created. The people, places, experiences, goodbyes, and beginnings this vocation has given me. I treasure this number and want it to grow and grow. I still have so much more I want to give and learn..’

Five Real Things In No Particular Order

by

‘I grew up surrounded by the manliest of manly men who had absolutely no qualms about weeping openly, hugging each other, spending entire worship services with their arms around each other or holding hands, and sharing with each other the burdens and joys in their hearts.

Real talk, not just about cars and titanium fishing rods.’

The Hidden Danger in Becoming Orthodox That Is Rarely Talked About

by

‘It is not uncommon to find a newcomer who has read more theology in six months than many lifelong Orthodox Christians. Yet there is often an unspoken assumption beneath all this activity, that Christianity is something to be figured out, rather than something to be lived.’

The Hypothetical as Apocalyptic

by

‘In a sense, we need one another to keep us violent or nonviolent. The social imaginary is shaped collectively. It was created and therefore can be recreated.’

The Mainline Church is Running out of Pastors: Part 3

by

‘These graduates—like anyone—need jobs. And those jobs, especially well-paying ones in the “social justice” space, are hard to come by.

Churches, meanwhile, need pastors.

So the two meet.

But not always cleanly.’

Here’s one thing I wrote..

and finally…

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Right now. Today.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.

Subscribe now

I’m off on retreat. Technology-free.

So I thought this would be a good time to look back on my favorite ‘Good Stuff’ articles so far this year, curate them for you, and set them to publish while I’m gone.

So that’s what I’m doing!

These next few Fridays - July 3, 10, and 17, I’m sharing 10 of my favorite articles from past ‘Good Stuff’ Friday blogs.

I can’t tell you how hard it is to narrow them down to just 30 articles (plus one of my own each week). There is SO much good writing about the church, life with God, and how to live a meaningful life. And running. And other random things.

It will be hard to miss a bunch of writing during these weeks, too - I’ll mostly be off-line. But I’ll spend some extra time working on it when I come back.

In the meantime, here’s next 10 articles, from March 13 - May 1, 2026. I sure enjoyed reading them again…

When the Heart Shifts

by

‘Then I asked her to imagine something else. God sits down beside you, looks you in the eye, and says, “I love you.”

Judith fell silent. After a few moments she said quietly, “I’ve never thought of that. That would be really different.”’

I wanna die with a mellow heart

by

’In living and dying, my aunt taught me how to be and how not to be.

Because of her, I have a personal goal to live and die without bitterness.’

The Wolf in the Pew

by

‘There are people who meet the wolf and run. There are people who meet the wolf and try to kill it. And then, every now and then, there is someone brave or stubborn enough to say,

“Come here. Sit down. Eat something. Stop biting people.”’

This is Not Simple Generational Replacement

by

‘If you walked into a church any Sunday over the last 35 years, the person most likely sitting next to you was a Baby Boomer.

That was true in 1990. It was still true in 2024.

Even as Boomers have gone from 45% of the GSS sample to just 25%, they remain the dominant force in American pews. That’s a genuinely hard thing to wrap your head around.’

Trying to Win at Everything Is Why You’re Losing

by

‘If you’re reading this, you’re likely ambitious. High-achieving. On this Monday morning, you’ve got a dragon to slay and a mountain to climb. Here’s where many of us go wrong: we refuse to turn any burners down, even temporarily.’

Burnout Is Just The Beginning

by

‘Today, I share the truth that your current situation isn’t the end of the road for you. I share my story to show others there are alternative paths to pursuing God’s will and you never have to journey alone.’

Becoming Happy in 10 Easy Steps

by

‘But a happiness that comes from living a rich, moral life that’s centered around Him and His kingdom is something followers of Jesus have been pointing toward from the very beginning.Joy, happiness, flourishing, etcetera aren’t the goal of our spirituality, but they’re an undeniable side effect.’

I got married two weeks ago

by

‘I sat there on that chair so forlorn and angry, and then I watched you walking across the street in the sunshine. You looked at me and smiled. I held the door open for you and said a whole bunch of dumb jokes. And you laughed.

Your laugh. So free, so lovely.

During the wedding weekend, people asked me when I “knew” you were someone special. I told them I knew it five minutes into that first date, when you laughed.’

The gel isn’t glamorous

by

‘Delaney, “How was your run, Mom?”

Me: “Great! I ate sugar for 3 hours and watched the sun come up.”

Delaney laughed.

Me: “I’d better go brush my teeth.”

The Silence at the Altar

by

‘When you stand at the altar, you do not stand only with those who are visibly present. You stand within the prayer of the whole Church, with the saints and the faithful departed, with those scattered across time and place, and indeed for a world that does not know how to pray for itself’

Here’s one thing I wrote..

No one is looking at your static church website

‘he internet now works like a city (so does the church). Now you have to actively work to to be seen.

You have to be on a busy street, where people are passing by. You have to have people talking about you. You have to be in conversation.

A beautiful building tucked down an unmarked alley (or a country road) that nobody ever walks by will not be seen.

We know this is true literally for church - now it’s true digitally as well, because of the way the internet has changed.

and finally…

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Right now. Today.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.

Subscribe now

It’s the 4th of July weekend. Then I’m off on retreat.

So I thought this would be a good time to look back on my favorite ‘Good Stuff’ articles so far this year, curate them for you, and set them to publish while I’m gone.

So that’s what I’m doing!

These next few Fridays - July 3, 10, and 17, I’m sharing 10 of my favorite articles from past ‘Good Stuff’ Friday blogs.

I can’t tell you how hard it is to narrow them down to just 30 articles (plus one of my own each week). There is SO much good writing about the church, life with God, and how to live a meaningful life. And running. And other random things.

It will be hard to miss a bunch of writing during these weeks, too - I’ll mostly be off-line. But I’ll spend some extra time working on it when I come back.

In the meantime, enjoy the first 10 articles, from January 9 - March 6, 2026. I sure enjoyed reading them again…

My Mom Died Well - Here’s What that Taught Me

by

‘A good death isn’t defined in the final hours. It’s built — day by day, year by year — in the living that comes before it.’

How far back in time can you understand English?

by
’It’s a thousand years of the English language, compressed into a single blog post.

Read it and notice where you start to struggle. Notice where you give up entirely. Then meet me on the other side and I’ll tell you what happened to the language (and the blogger).’

Invoking the Lord

by

‘We can’t worship what we don’t know. What we are invoking are the actions the Lord reveals to us.

So chew on that.’

To Fill the Church with Wonder

by

‘My mind told me the unusual lighting effect was achieved through water droplets reflecting ground light, magnified by the season’s peculiar atmospheric conditions.

My heart, though, responded differently.’

My Best Friends Are Endurance Athletes

by

‘People sometimes joke that triathlon friendships are bonded by suffering. There’s truth in that, but I think it’s deeper: we’re bonded by chosen suffering.

This Is Not Ministry

by

‘Ministry becomes programmatic. Not because programs are inherently evil, but because programs, by their structure, cannot be relational in the way the New Testament describes’

The School of Adulting

by

‘One of the hidden geniuses of a healthy church body is young people learn how to be adults from men and women who have figured out a lot of things about how to live a life that matters’

Why Replicate When You Can Reimagine?

by

‘It’s one thing to copy-and-paste Sunday morning onto a screen. It’s another to cultivate worship that is native to the space where it’s happening.’

Seeing the deer

by

‘I love to watch them leap. But I love to watch them standing still as well. The stillness between us seems like an unspoken prayer. What is my prayer? Perhaps it is, “please let me get a little closer.” Or, “let this moment last.” Perhaps it is just the wonder, the “now” of it.’

Christianity as vocation

by

‘But he also shared his conviction that all Christians are called by God to do good in the world. I said, “Yes! That is our baptismal covenant!” which is the real sign I’ve been deep in the weeds of Episcopal ordination exams. One does not usually just say “baptismal covenant” in the wild to non-Episcopalians. (But maybe we should!)’

Here’s one thing I wrote..

Fasting as a ‘weapon of love’

‘Fasting is our call to spiritual endurance training. To hearing God’s voice, and nothing else. To remembering our dependence on God, and our preparation for standing on holy ground.’

and finally…

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Right now. Today.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.

Subscribe now

‘Good Stuff’ = articles I’ve read this week that inspired, educated, entertained, or moved me.

Which for a Free Range Priest, means reading more amazing, inspiring things about God, the church, the universe, and running.


Here’s this week’s roundup:

God stuff

• ‘Listening to New Languages’ by . ‘Are we listening for the ways of God? Do we hear the language that He speaks to us? Often we feel like He’s silent, but of course He’s always talking, we’re just no good at hearing.’

• ‘A Theology of Walking’ by . ‘But here’s the gist: whenever you’re feeling stumped, overwhelmed, or overstimulated, one of the best possible responses is GO FOR A WALK.’

Church stuff

• ‘Does The Church Matter?’ by . ‘We need the church to be — not triumphalist, not self-aggrandizing, but also not apologetic. We need the church and churches, and those who lead them, to be confident.’

• ’In Praise of Small Churches’ by . ‘I also think we have quietly absorbed an assumption that small automatically means failing. I do not think that assumption is true. Some of the holiest ministry I have ever witnessed has happened in small churches.’
  

Other stuff

• ‘I have a big problem with Dave Ramsey’ by . ‘If the goal is “don’t be in debt,” then why did my no-debt lifestyle sideline me during critical years for making important financial decisions?’

• ‘25 Years of Decisions’ by . ‘Every day there’s something to let go of. In the release, there is always a surprising combination of grief and joy; a curious kind of death and a new kind of life.’
  

What I wrote this week:

I’m deep into consolidating my ministry, so I’m re-issuing older articles…

Also, I was on a wonderful podcast this week. Thank you so much and !

Extraordinary Catholics

Wisdom from a Free Range Priest®!

In this episode, Reverend Trish and Father Jayme speak with Free Range Priest® Father Cathie Caimano. She shares of her vocation and ministry within the Episcopal tradition, changing paradigms in the Church, the “cages” in which many clergy find themselves, and how we might better work “inside, outside and alongside” the institutional Church. Father Cat…

Listen now

3 months ago · Hon. Rev. Dr. Jayme Mathias and Rev. Trish Sullivan Vanni, PhD

And finally…

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Right now. Today.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.

Subscribe now

‘Good Stuff’ = articles I’ve read this week that inspired, educated, entertained, or moved me.

Which for a Free Range Priest, means reading more amazing, inspiring things about God, the church, the universe, and running.


Here’s this week’s roundup:

God stuff

• ‘Learning to See’ by . ‘The theologian who helped secure Nicene orthodoxy presents his deepest reflection on death, the soul, and the love of God as something he received, from a woman, at her feet.’

• ‘The Freakin’ Miracle of Being Alive’ by . ‘And I thought, “Ministry of presence, my ass. All this woman needs is something no human being can give.”

Church stuff

• ‘Five Real Things In No Particular Order’ by . ‘There were informal phone trees and schedules to make sure not everybody showed up at Sister Anita’s door on the first day after her surgery. But that was more to regulate the flow than to ensure the flow would happen. It was for sure gonna happen, because the church was full of people who were genuinely Sister Anita’s friends, and they weren’t about to let one square inch of her fridge and freezer remain uncasseroled.’

• ‘Feed my sheep - the 21st c. parish priest’ by . ‘We become light so we may share light. We are fed so we may feed. The pastoral call is to engage people in their own renewal.’
  

Other stuff

• ‘What Am I Counting?’ by . ‘All God ever sees is a child, a beloved child. God shows us we can see, and be, this way too.’

• ‘The Spiritual Practice of Reading Fiction’ by . ‘Something happens at the soul level when it comes to stories. Consider how Jesus used short stories to teach the crowd. Think about how a whole congregation leans forward and pays attention when the pastor starts telling a story.’
  

What I wrote this week:

I’m deep into consolidating my ministry, so I’m re-issuing older articles…

And finally…

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Right now. Today.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.

Subscribe now

‘Good Stuff’ = articles I’ve read this week that inspired, educated, entertained, or moved me.

Which for a Free Range Priest, means reading more amazing, inspiring things about God, the church, the universe, and running.


Here’s this week’s roundup:

God stuff

• ‘Why Are We All So Immature?’ by . ‘The best models usually aren’t putting themselves in the spotlight; they’re usually off to the side, beating their chest saying “Have mercy on me, a sinner.” We need saints, not celebrities; we need models who care more about theosis, union with Christ, than building platform.’

• ‘What’s the Hurry?’ by . ‘Religion has become the manual typewriter of the spiritual life for many people. It’s not bad. And some still want to use it for nostalgia’s sake or to suit their own purposes. But generally speaking, religion has become one among many options, not an existential necessity.’

Church stuff

• ‘You Arrive as a Person. You Become a Case’ by ‘the machinery of institutional response is not oriented toward them. It is oriented toward the organization. The person who fell is the occasion for the process, not the purpose of it.’

• ‘How ‘Inclusive’ Church Excludes’ by . ‘Inclusion is not a destination but a direction. It tells us that a door is open, but it says nothing about what lies beyond.’
  

Other stuff

• ‘When will Modern English end?’ by . ‘There’s a quotation attributed to Chinese statesman Zhou Enlai, who, when asked by Henry Kissinger about the impact of the French Revolution — which had occurred almost two centuries prior to this conversation — is reported to have said, “It is too soon to tell.”’

• ‘For the Love of Dogs’ by . ‘I think of Alvin, the irascible dog, and how, in his last moments, he leaned into his owner with trust. I don’t know what it means, exactly, but it seems like grace to me. It seems like love. Alvin loved his family, in whatever way he could. And his family loved him.’
  

What I wrote this week:

I’m deep into consolidating my ministry, so I’m re-issuing older articles…

And finally…

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Right now. Today.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.

Subscribe now

‘Good Stuff’ = articles I’ve read this week that inspired, educated, entertained, or moved me.

Which for a Free Range Priest, means reading more amazing, inspiring things about God, the church, the universe, and running.


Here’s this week’s roundup:

God stuff

• ‘Beloved Authenticity’ by . ‘Sanctity, for Merton, was not about becoming someone else. It was about becoming who you already are in God.’

• ‘Let’s Talk Money’ by . ‘A rule is about ultimate concerns—about deciding what does and does not matter in this life as illumined by the next. And maybe this is why we don’t want to be talking about money. Like the Rich Young Ruler, we grow sad that God should ask so much of us.’

Church stuff

• ‘The Commodification Of Christianity’ by . ‘The awful truth of it, I have to be honest, is that I put off going to church because I know that I can. I’ve got my phone.’

• ‘A Too Small Life’ by . ‘You are witness to this life.

  It was life so small that it took over a month for anyone to notice. A life so folded in on itself that there is no one to even grieve, truly for her, the loss of her, the hole she left in their life. She left no holes in anyone’s life. That’s a choice.’
  

Other stuff

• ‘Sometimes…’ by . ‘Poets, mystics, children and sages have, for centuries, pointed towards our attention as being inseparable from our love.’

• ‘A Behold! Walk’ by . ‘Beholding is transformational. What I see, experience, and feel has a pathway into my soul’
  

What I wrote this week:

• ‘Ask Father Cathie’ - I didn’t really ‘write’ this - it’s my monthly advice live stream. Usually just for paid subscribers, it’s open to everyone while I’m upgrading.
  
  This week’s question:
  ‘Should I take a $2,500 annual stipend for a chaplain job?’
  
  
  From St. Paul’s, Salisbury:
  

• ‘Why doctrines matter: they’re invitations into mystery’. ‘Doctrine is the shape or our beliefs. And that shape is always a triangle.’
  

And finally…

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Right now. Today.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.

Subscribe now

‘Good Stuff’ = articles I’ve read this week that inspired, educated, entertained, or moved me.

Which for a Free Range Priest, means reading more amazing, inspiring things about God, the church, the universe, and running.


Here’s this week’s roundup:

God stuff

• ‘Leading causes of life’ by . ‘How can we - as individuals and as spiritual leaders - partner with God in taking tiny steps toward more connection, coherence, agency, hope, and blessing?’

• ‘Searching for God in Silicon Valley’ by . ‘I pray. So far no one has answered, or at least not so clearly that my agnostic ears can undeniably hear it. But I am still listening. If there is a God, I hope he is watching San Francisco in the year of our Lord 2026.’

Church stuff

• ‘Can evangelicals become more sacramental as sacramentalists become more evangelical?’ by . ‘what are the limits for us evangelical, low-church Protestants in developing a sacramental theology? Can we see all creation as sacramental without the sacramental accoutrements of Rome or Greece (altars, vestments, icons, etc.)?’

• ‘Is the Mainline Holding Together Two Different Faiths?’ by ‘once Christianity becomes about living like Jesus without believing in Jesus and his work through the church, then the church becomes an “unnecessary overhead.’
  

Other stuff

• ‘What Has Changed’ by . ‘You must be willing to actually let go of those days, because you cannot cling to what was and expect to be able to simultaneously hold today. You are incapable of being in two places at once.’

• ‘Kissing Cement at Full Speed’ by . ‘Divorce has an added layer in the grief process that comes before denial: Disillusionment.’
  

What I wrote this week:

• ‘The Pope said ‘use AI for Love’. ‘It’s not just about how they are using AI (tech companies, governments, etc).It’s also how we are.We have power we have never had before to share the Gospel to the ends of the earth.’
  
  
  From St. Paul’s, Salisbury:
  

• ‘What if we didn’t grow - and that was the point?’ ‘We have definitely added members over the last few years - and we hope to continue adding members. But the mission of the church is to share the Gospel, and we have everything we need to do that already, no matter our size.’
  

And finally…

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Right now. Today.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.

Subscribe now

‘Good Stuff’ = articles I’ve read this week that inspired, educated, entertained, or moved me.

Which for a Free Range Priest, means reading more amazing, inspiring things about God, the church, the universe, and running.


Here’s this week’s roundup:

God stuff

• ‘I Know the Author’ by . ‘But God has been writing. He has authored a new chapter with twists and turns none of us expected. I look at my daughter today and I couldn’t be prouder of her. I am grateful to a God who sees it all, holds it all, and never gives up through it all.’

• ‘Theology of Eating Alone, II: The Table That Remains’ by . ‘Eating alone can carry a sense that something is missing, and in human terms that perception is often accurate. Still, the Christian tradition suggests that the act itself remains connected to a larger reality.’

Church stuff

• ‘Do You Believe This? The Crisis of Ecclesiology in Mainline Protestantism’ by . ‘I think that is the question that is staring Mainline Protestantism in the face: do we believe this? Do we believe this Jesus stuff is all true? Do we believe God is alive and not just a concept? Do we believe God can change lives, set the prisoner free, give sight to the blind, and raise the dead?’

• ‘Anglican Missives: On the History & Theology of the Eucharist’ . ‘Communion has always been the result of (rigorous) formation. And given the fallow harvest after fifty years of next-to-no formation in the church for much of anything, I think we need to start requiring higher commitments, not lower ones!
  

Other stuff

• ‘You can’t build trust without vulnerability’ by . You don’t need more relationships. We all say we want deeper trust. Easy way to practice this week, someone asks how you are, tell them how you are (really).’

• ‘Why I'm Writing This’ by ‘I am writing it because I need to know if what remains is enough.’

  
  

What I wrote this week:

• ‘Why you should make Substack your church website’. ‘Today, I use any browser’s search function and just ask, “Where is [friend’s name] serving right now?” and I immediately get the info I’m looking for. I never see the church’s website.’
  
  
  From Trexo:
  

• ‘The table of the Lord is an act of resistance.’ ‘When I ‘asked’ Perpetua what she would want us to know today: far removed from her time and her suffering, she reminded us all that when we come to the table, we are saying yes to Jesus.’
  
  From Substack Seminary (and written by ):
  

• ‘What does “thriving” actually look like?’ ‘How do we minimize the work that drains us and maximize the work that brings life?’
  

And finally…

At Free Range Priest, we’re bringing church to people.

Bite-sized ways that YOU can re-imagine ministry and get ‘unstuck’.
Right now. Today.
Subscribe to re-discover ministry JOY.

Subscribe now