Substack Seminary is now a newsletter of Free Range Priest!
If you are already a subscriber of either Free Range Priest or Substack seminary, you will get blogs and emails from Substack Seminary.
If you don’t want to hear things about Substack Seminary, you can adjust your Newsletter sign ups (and your notification preferences) here:
(look for the link near the top of this page that says ‘account settings’)
Subscribe to Free Range Priest to get Substack Seminary posts in your email inbox.
Become a paid Free Range Priest subscriber to join us for livestream Conversations, replays, and the Chat.
We’ve paused ALL paid subscriptions to Substack Seminary, so if you want to continue to join us, become a paid subscriber to Free Range Priest.
any questions: frcathie@freerangepriest.org
From now on, a paid Free Range Priest subscription gets you into Substack Seminary, Trexo, Cage Free Ministry, and more — making it more accessible to all.
Substack Seminary is the home for weirdo orphan pastors
Ministers doing church in new ways, whether inside, outside, or alongside the institution.
Q3 - Theology and Community - starts Monday and runs six weeks, through September 13.
The guiding question: how is your ministry actually ministry — how are you sharing the faith, forming community, and bearing the tradition into the world?
Those who are enrolled in the full program will stay enrolled and continue with the same process.
What does it mean to be ‘outside the box’ and creating theological connection and community?
Loren: hospital chaplaincy. He didn’t understand the pastoral work until he was really doing it, saying a word of truth: you’re forgiven, God loves you.
Cathie: Cage Free Ministry - when you’re outside Sunday worship, the role isn’t proscribed, it’s organic and riskier.
Sierra: in her small town, a lot of her job is being publicly a pastor — people ask her to do funerals and weddings, and when something bad happens, they come find her. They may never come to church, but you can tell them: you are loved, God is with you, he is near.
We talked about the burden of feeling like we’re carrying it all, but we don’t have to: denominations change, the church never fails, because the church is something bigger. Institutions come and go, but the institution of us in the church goes back to the beginning and goes to the end.
The Substack Seminary’s shape:
Q1: How the church is stuck.
Q2: Sustainability
Q3: (now) is theology and community.
Q4, in October and early November, is technology — and Loren’s favorite, using Substack as the home for your ministry.
The Chat is coming back next week, and we’ll occasionally invite subscribers to guest blog or join the live stream.
We talked about the loneliness of being clergy - especially Cage Free Ministers. We found each other because of that - it’s what started Substack Seminary. We need each other.
Loren dropped a shameless plug: his book, The Church as Community Hub, comes out September 8 and is available for pre-order wherever books are sold. Cathie has already pre-ordered hers!
Substack Seminary is a Newsletter that is part of
a Free Range Priest subscription.
During Quarters, you’ll get blogs thematic blogs:
Q1: Vision & Systematic Change
Q2: Structure & Business Model
Q3: Theology & Community
Q4: Technology & Collaboration
Paid FRP subscribers join Conversations live on Thursdays at 3:30 Eastern (during Quarters), and get the replay + chat invitation on Mondays.
You don’t have to do this alone. Subscribe to join the ‘home for weirdo pastors’.
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