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.
☕️ I’ve been sending out Friday ‘Where’s the Good Stuff?’ for well over a year now - and they’ve been some of my most popular posts!
I subscribe to over 400 Substack newsletters now!
I don’t quite read that many - but I do my best to at least scroll through everything published by those I follow. I love this - I learn so much, I get to know so many brilliant and lovely Substack colleagues, and it makes me feel like I’m part of this big, eclectic community.
So I’ve decided to update what I’m doing:
with a new name - now it’s ‘Friday Good Stuff’
with a few more of my own insights. I want to tell you why I think so much of this writing is so good - and why it matters.
with a ‘What’s new at Free Range Priest’ section - so all my subscribers can see what I’m up to in one place each week.
What hasn’t changed
Sharing what I’ve learned, who I’ve met, and the Good Stuff I’ve found on Substack this week. Topics lean heavily towards theology, church, healings and miracles, relationships, running and triathlon, and general creativity and innovation.
I never really know where I’ll find the best Good Stuff…
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
☕️ I really love ‘stop shopping for your religious home’ by Virginia Karnstein. By focusing on a very particular parishioner (whom we all know…), she manages to remind us why we need church in the first place. It’s about our formation.
☕️ Jake Mills has a different take on Christian community - and being deeply formed by listening to God’s voice. And understanding that what God is saying is not always what we want to hear. He shares a wonderful story of discernment in ‘How to Know When God is Calling You to Leave.’
☕️ Sometimes God’s voice shows up in our physical well-being. An injury and a health scare forced Rich Swetman to reckon with how alive he wanted to be in ‘I Played My Last Round of Golf’.
☕️ Dolly last week - this week Wendell Berry. We’re losing some good ones, and there have been many beautiful tributes to both. I was very drawn to Drew Brown’s essay: ‘What the Wendell Berry obits are missing’ - and how he reminds us that it was Berry’s Christian faith that formed him into the unique poet, prophet, and theologian he was.
Not quite on theme, but I couldn’t resist…
☕️ I can never resist a good vice, and Myles Werntz gives us two (though he only really gets into the first): impudence and bashfulness. SO fascinating - and surprisingly modern! ‘All Your Favorite Vices: Impudence’.
☕️ ‘a letter to my future self on the eve of my ordination to the priesthood’ by Janette Platter. What a gift it is, 30 years after I headed off to seminary, to hear from someone just on the cusp of her ordained ministry. There were tears.
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 Loren Richmond Jr.’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:
What have I missed?
I can’t always read 400+ newsletters.
And there’s lots of great Substackers I haven’t met yet - especially those who are just starting, and who may not have that many followers yet.
PLEASE share the Good Stuff you’ve read this week in the comments below.
And PLEASE restack this post so others can see - and subscribe to - this Good Stuff.
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