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.
☕️ I’m getting a new Great Dane puppy today!
New to me and my husband, anyway. Our beloved Dane Sissy died suddenly and traumatically two months ago (I wrote about it HERE). I still cry pretty much every day.
But we went ahead and put in an application and deposit with Sissy’s breeder for a potential puppy that would hopefully join our family in early 2027. Which felt both too soon, and not nearly soon enough.
Then suddenly the breeder has a returned puppy that needs a home. And we’re on our way to get him.
Of course it feels like God in my life - though strangely, it feels like the answer to a different prayer. One I’ve been having about clarity in my vocation.
I feel God so strongly saying that God will give me what I need, when I need it. It may not look like what I imagined. But it will always bring me closer to faith.
So of course I’ve been drawn to Good Stuff this week about God’s voice.
This week’s theme: Discernment
☕️ ‘Holding Liminal Space’ by Jamie S. Harper
Hearing God’s call through grief. Where is it leading? It’s impossible to know for sure. That’s the adventure.
‘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?’
☕️ ‘What the Reformation Got Wrong’ by Kevin E Martin
It seems to me that pretty much as soon as the church started, we started saying ‘you’re doing it wrong’! What does the faith require of us, and how do we hear God calling us collectively, over centuries?
‘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!’
☕️ ‘Church-Hopping, Part XXI: Moravian Edition’ by Diane Roth.
I think it’s ok to go to other churches. In fact, congregations are so siloed that it often feels taboo to join others for worship. But we’re all on the same team -team Jesus. And even with a home church where everyone knows you, you can still be called to explore how others worship and practice the faith.
‘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.’
☕️ ‘My Friend Eric Zahnd’ by Jason G. Edwards.
God so often speaks in our lives through other people.
‘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?’
Because this is just too good not to share...
And because Ann Patchett’s new novel Whistler is so fabulous it’s starting brawls…
☕️ ‘Why my book club almost broke into fisticuffs over Ann Patchett’ by Lost in the Marginalia .
‘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.
Cage Free Ministry is 12 rubrics built around:
the System: how we organize ourselves as the church.
the Community: what we do and believe as the church.
the Minister: how lay and ordained leaders serve God and the church together.
You’ll learn them the way we’re learning them:
by practicing, discovering, and building sustainable, JOYful ways of bringing church to people.
☕️ ‘What Might God Do Through You?’ Guest post from Thea Curry-Fuson, 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?
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.
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.